ICRP Main Commission Meeting
1958 March 3 – 12, New York, USA
Report on Committee II – Extensive discussion was held regarding the limits proposed in the document, and content of the report. It was decided to include upper limit values for maximum dose and to include soluble as well as insoluble radioactive materials, even if in condensed form. Other decisions included: Occupational exposure time decreased to 50 from 70 years, MPC values for 250 nuclides, and an RBE value of 10 for alpha particles, 20 for recoil ions, and 1.7 for electrons.
Concern was raised by the Commission regarding the desire to avoid duplicating the efforts of other scientific bodies. No concrete decision on how to avoid this was made.
Independence of ICRP from the ICR and methods of increasing funding was discussed and it was agreed that the best way for ICRP to achieve its goals would be to focus on publishing its reports to gain respect and publicity.
In light of expanding uses for atomic work, ICRP decided on establishing more detailed limits. The Commission agreed to the following: Background radiation and medical exposure will not contribute to the dose limit and there will be no limit for exposure to the latter.
Other specific doses were agreed upon and some are listed as the following: Max dose of 15 rems, with an average max of 5 rems per year and a limit of 3 rems in 13 weeks. The max dose at age 30 shall not exceed 60 rems. Additional limits with respect to age were described via formulas. It was agreed that large doses to young individuals should be avoided.
Committee IV Report – The Commission made the following decisions regarding this document: The values in Table II must be reduced to correspond to weekly dose of 100 mrems, and a statement shall be included in the report indicating that dose in rads relates to soft tissue.
The Commission established new scopes for Committees III/IV/V and are as follows:
C3: Protection against X-rays, gamma rays, and electrons up to 3 MeV; and alpha, beta, and gamma rays from sealed sources:
C5: Concerned with protection from ruptured or open sources.
C4: Protection against electromagnetic radiation and electrons above 3 MeV; and heavy particles, neutrons and protons.
Committees were created to discuss: dose limits to children’s gonads from television and problems of transport of radioactive materials.
The Commission agreed to adopt a statement regarding a requirement for radiation workers to have a pre-employment medical examination.
Alpha Emitters in the G.I Tract: It was agreed not to change values in tables in light of recent studies.
The Commission discussed organisational matters relevant to ICRP such as the structure of the organisation which included matters concerned with lack of paid secretariat to aid in publishing of reports, and selecting members purely on a technical, instead of national basis. No concrete decision was reached.
Regarding the topic of average population dose, it was decided to draw attention in the report to the fact that countries will have to allocate the available dose. The decision that for the whole population the critical organ to age 30 was the gonads, and that the occupational doses referred to all the critical organs (with that to the skin doubled) was agreed.
It was agreed that the average rate should be equivalent to 5 rem per decade (10 mrem/week).