• Women's Institute
• National Women's Register
• Round Table/Ladies Circle
• Rotary
• Soroptomists
• Probus Clubs
• Trades Unions

Speakers are recommended to make the following checks/confirmations with the class teacher/club secretary before arrival at the venue.

• Name/contact details of organiser
• Date, time and duration of talk
• Number/type/age of audience
• Level of scientific knowledge/understanding
• Any local issues - is the venue near a nuclear site, hospital, rail line used for irradiated fuel transport, under a transmission tower/power line, near a mobile phone transmitter etc.
• Availability/use of visual aids
• How to reach the venue, including parking arrangements, any potential travel delays.
• Arrangements for feedback on the presentation

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2. CONTENT

The Communications Group recognises that the content of these talks cannot be prescriptive. The presentation will inevitably reflect members' own backgrounds, expertise and employment. It would be unrealistic to expect a member working for an organisation facing controversial issues not to respond on behalf of that organisation when facing a public audience. However, participants may choose to make their presentation primarily as members of an independent learned society and as safety professionals.  The format is geared to a general discussion on the history, ethics and basic science of radiological protection. Specific issues applicable to members' employment may be best tackled in the final question session.

All speakers should ensure that they brief themselves on local issues and current national and international news stories linked to radiological protection. Explanation and comment, linked back to presentation content, can only help with the proper understanding of speculative or misleading reporting.

Members will note that certain issues (nuclear fission, radioactive waste disposal, decommissioning, transport of irradiated material, accidents and incidents, nuclear weapons, detailed discussion of health effects etc) are omitted from the main presentation.  All these topics can, and probably will, be raised in the final question session.

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3. OUTLINE PRESENTATION

The following format is suggested. The presentation assumes that the speakers will fill in the technical gaps from their own knowledge and experience. The style should however be not too technical, and speakers are urged to avoid jargon and acronyms and to keep explanations simple without being patronising. Those members who regularly train unskilled workers or talk to the general public should recognise the approach.

There is probably too much material for a single short talk, and speakers should pick and mix according to the audience. The Introduction and the Conclusion contain key messages about the Society for Radiological Protection. The Communications Group expects these messages to be delivered at every presentation.
 

• Introduction to  Speaker and the SRP

Who am I? What's my job? Why I do what I do. Why I'm a radiological protection professional.  How I keep up to date with the profession, share experiences, learn from others. Joining the club (learned society) - the Society for Radiological Protection. What's in it for me - access to independent forum on safety issues - access to the best brains in the business - access to international information - peer recognition as competent professional (certification scheme). How? - Journal, web site, meetings, conferences. Why am I speaking to you? - Many people worried by radiation - confused by the contradictions (diagnostic x-rays good/radioactive waste bad). We believe that to help workers, patients and the public deal safely and rationally with radiation, they should understand something about it. SRP can do this independent of both the nuclear industry and anti-nuclear protest groups.

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• What is radiation?

Explain difference between non-ionising electromagnetic fields, optical radiation and ionising radiation. Describe the electromagnetic spectrum - visible/invisible-detect directly/indirectly. Radio waves, microwaves, infra red, visible light, ultra violet, X-rays, gamma rays. X-ray generators. Ionisation. Radioactivity/radioactive decay. Atoms, elements, isotopes. Particle radiation -alpha, beta, neutrons. Half-life (radioactivity disappears naturally). Natural radioactivity.

• Demonstration

Many members will have access to portable monitoring equipment. Use an end window Geiger or dual phosphor scintillation probe with some or all of the following: Cornish granite, potash fertiliser, Lo-salt, thorium coated gas mantle or welding rod, luminous watches (radium and tritium).  Running a small air sampler during the talk and monitoring at the end can be a good demonstration of radon daughters.

• Background Radiation

Talk about background radiation. Quantify terrestrial (including radon), cosmic, medical, man-made components. Explain that humans and animals evolved in a radioactive world. Emphasis that we are all exposed to radiation and that the human race always has been. Remind about half-life.

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• Effects of Radiation

Talk about what radiation does and doesn't do. Explain cell damage and acute and chronic consequences.

Discuss short-term effects of sunlight: local heating, sunburn. Talk about limiting time of exposure to the sun and shielding with sun creams. Talk about long term possibility of skin cancer. Explain that we can't predict who will get skin cancer, but by checking the statistics we might find more cancers in people who have been exposed to the most sun (Australia).

Describe acute effects of large doses of ionising radiation - radiation burns, organ damage. Talk about shielding, limiting working times, protective clothing (tools of the trade). Explain internal/external contamination (Use dung heap analogy).   Long term effects - explain epidemiology and difficulties with statistics - impact of "normal" cancer levels and background radiation exposure. Go back to skin cancer and sun example.

Explain dose and how one unit (Sievert) has been derived to allow comparisons between the different effects of alpha, beta, gamma and whether exposure is to the whole body or to specific organs.

• Setting Limits

Explain that internationally agreed rules have evolved to protect workers and the public from the effects of radiation. Standards have changed with time and the profession is not arrogant enough to think that we will ever get them absolutely right - so continuous process of review. Three fundamental principles: keep radiation as low as reasonably practicable to minimise long term effects, justify all exposure by considering the benefits, keep all exposure within legal limits. Limits set to prevent acute effects and to provide a legal backstop - just exceeding a limit is not a life or death matter but it does show that safety may not be given the right level of management priority.

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• Benefits from the use of Ionising Radiation

Medicine: diagnostic x-rays, CAT scanners, tracers, and cancer therapy.
Industrial: large-scale electricity generation, marine propulsion, thickness detectors, level detectors, fire detectors, tracers, industrial radiography.
Research: tracers in biological research, geology, carbon dating etc.

This section allows to the speakers to touch on their own experiences.

• Living with the risks

System of radiological protection is there because society recognises that there is a risk. Living is a risky business - talk about common annual risks of death.

Smoking 10 cigarettes a day	1 in 200
Work in the deep sea fishing industry	1 in 500
Accidents in the home	1 in 10,000
Accidents at work	1 in 50,000
Most exposed people from nuclear discharges	1 in 110,000

Radiological protection specialists' job is to minimise the risks from using radiation.

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• Conclusion

Radiological protection is about trust. Members of the Society who work for the big users of radiation do so in the knowledge that they and their employers have a legal responsibility not only for the safety of workers, but also the public who live around their factories, hospitals or power stations. They achieve safety by gaining the trust of these people by an honest approach on the risks of radiation, discussing safety openly. This is done with regular staff training, working with Trades Union appointed Safety representatives and regular meetings with representatives of the local community. The ability to empathise with the full cross-section of society, from managing directors to shop stewards to concerned members of the public is a key quality of radiological protection specialists.

There is a legal framework of protection, and many Society members work for the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate; the Environment Agency; the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. (Or Scottish/Welsh equivalents). These bodies enforce the various regulations but also provide advice and can act as sounding boards when users are deciding how to approach a particular issue.

Independent advice to everyone in the business comes from the National Radiological Protection Board, a statutory body.

People from all these organisations and businesses meet together in the Society for Radiological Protection. Our Society provides a forum for radiation safety issues to be debated in a proper scientific manner. Our members all share the same objective - that the benefits of working and living with radiation will always outweigh the risks.

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4. WEB LINKS

•  Explain to audience how to follow up the talk using the SRP Web Site. Public can post questions. Answers to frequently asked questions available. Links provided to other sites.

• Most members will have access to their own visual aids. The Communications Group is developing a PowerPoint Presentation to supplement this format. Watch the Members only web page for details.

This material has been developed by the SRP Ad-Hoc Communications Group. Feedback and comments are welcome - Email us, or use the Comments Form

SRP ad-hoc Communications Group
Issue 1 - February 2001