Injustice at it's best: Self-appointed ICRP decides what is "safe" radiation exposure for the world
Please take the time to read this entire article:
http://iicph.org/can_icrp_be_trusted
...as it provides an invaluable history lesson of the Atomic Age, and describes, among other important issues, how the "permissible levels of radiation" exposure for individuals were developed by a self-perpetuating, lifetime membership organization, the ICRP (The International Commission on Radiological Protection), an international organization based in the UK and Ottawa, Canada.
The article was written in 1995, but if this organization still exists under the conditions described by its author then, given their obvious biases, the ICRP should no longer have the right to decide what the permissible levels of radiation exposure are for the citizens of the world. It is time a newly appointed organization was established, comprised of truly unbiased scientists, epidemiologists and doctors who are NOT beholden to industry, who can develop new "permissible" standards based on the truth, not "wishful thinking", selective analysis of scientific data that serves the purpose of the nuclear industry. Complete transparency and an unbiased membership is imperative to insure validity of the recommendations by such an organization.
It is especially important to note that, since the 1980s, (and prior to Fukushima), radiation exposure (of both background and man-made radiation) of U.S. citizens alone has increased nearly 7 fold. (http://www.ncrppublications.org/Reports/160)
Even without the seriousness of increased human exposure to unprecedented radiation levels from Fukushima, that figure alone should be a wake up call for us to do whatever we can to limit our exposure to the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Ask yourself: just how much more such increases will the human species be able to take?
Article highlights include:
"ICRP is a self-constituted organization. Since 1952 it has maintained a membership of about 50% physicists and 50% medical doctors. The doctors have been about 25% medical administrators (often from nuclear weapon countries) who set radiation protection practices in their National Ministries of Health or Labour and about 15% medical radiologists. The other 10% has consisted of one pathologist, two geneticists and some biophysicists. By their rules, the Main Committee, responsible for all decision making, will NOT EVER (my emphasis) include an epidemiologist, occupational health specialist, public health specialist, oncologist or pediatrician."
"One can say that it consists only of users of radiation and administrative regulators."
"Since 1952, the ICRP has perpetuated itself, with current members nominating new members. These were approved by the Executive Committee of the International Radiologists Association at first, and then by the ICRP’s own Executive Committee."
"Membership term is for an unlimited time."
"They have not mandated themselves to be protectors of worker or public health, but rather to recommend “sensible” trade-offs of health for the benefits of their activities."
"By 1957 the ICRP got out its second publication, recommending that the internal radiation dose to workers and the public be limited to 5 rem (50 mSv) per year of any ingested or inhaled radio nuclides. The committee originally intended that this be a COMBINED (my emphasis) external plus internal dose limit of 5 rem (personal communication, Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, Chairperson of the Internal Dose Committee of ICRP). Actually, it was often interpreted to mean the worker could get both internal and external doses per year."
"There was another abuse related to internal contamination, i.e. when radionuclides were ingested or inhaled and became incorporated into bone. These nuclear experts counted only the 4 or 5% of total dose delivered the FIRST YEAR (my emphasis) and then forget about subsequent years. A slowly delivered dose due to bone incorporation could continue for 50 to 60 years."
