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58
The Council's Committee on Protection against lonising Radiation
has issued a series of recommendations about the desirable protection of
those whose employment exposes them to radiation. These recommendations
the Committee feel form a satisfactory basis for radiation protection
at the present time. The same Committee have reported on the Maximum
Permissible Dietary Contamination after the Accidental Release of
Radioactive Material from a Nuclear Reactor. The Committee agreed
with them, and endorse the report of the same Committee on Emergency
Exposure to External Radiation.
As general conclusions on the hazards from civil use of radiation,
the Committee concur in the views expressed in the 1956 report :
"The general conclusion to be drawn from a consideration of the hazards
inseparable from the application of ionizing radiations in peacetime is
that at present there is no cause for alarm; but that, as all such radiations
are potentially dangerous, their use should be the subject of constant
and close scrutiny, and that adequate justification should be required for
their employment on however small a scale. There is a limit to the amount
of radiation which any population or any individual can accept and we
cannot afford to expend, without careful forethought, the margin which
is now available to us."
They also have not changed their views about the effects of atomic
warfare: "The importance of the effects of atomic warfare which would be
relayed through contamination of the atmosphere to parts of the world
remote from the actual conflict would depend upon the number and type
of bombs exploded. Given a sufficient number of bombs, no part of the
world would escape exposure to biologically significant levels of radiation.
To a greater or less degree, a legacy of genetic damage would be incurred,
and an increased incidence of delayed effects on the individual would
probably be induced. Although it is difficult to imagine the general
occurrence of radiation intensities which would eliminate the entire human
race, atomic warfare on a large scale could not fail to increase for many
generations the load of distress and suffering that individuals and all
human societies would be called upon to support."
Many have been concerned about the absence of knowledge of what
may be the risks of exposure to radioactive substances in their own
districts, whether from radioactive material used in industry orelse where,
or from the consumption of food which might have been contaminated
by fall-out or other risks from it. The Minister of Housing and Local
Government obtains details of all deliveries by the Atomic Energy
Authority in order to ensure that no hazard arises from the disposal of
radioactive waste. Details of this distribution are not available to health
authorities. On the last occasion on which particulars were obtained from
the Ministry, only a small number of firms in the district were using
radioactive material and those only in very small doses. The factory
Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labour is responsible for the safe working
conditions, working under the Factories Act and the Regulations an
Orders made under it. Certain educational establishments use isotopes,