From one Congress to another

Abstract

The term of office of an IRPA President is 4 years, from the IRPA Congress at which he (in my case) was elected to the Congress at which the next President takes over. Unlike Executive Council Members or other Officers the President has only one term to get things done. It seemed therefore timely to take the opportunity of this invited editorial to muse a little on what has happened since IRPA-10 in Hiroshima in May 2000.The new Executive Council was, for the first time since I have been involved, given a clear mandate for some actions and goals by the Associate Societies Forum (ASF) discussion at IRPA-10. This was partly because the ASF was held separately from the General Assembly, which promoted a much less formal and deeper consideration of issues, and partly because there had been some discussion in the 2 years leading up to Hiroshima of the way in which IRPA was tackling its main activities under the Constitution. This procedure for the ASF will again be followed at IRPA-11 in Madrid but concentrating on specific activities.The mandate that has probably been of the most general interest and the greatest importance was to increase the involvement of IRPA, and through it the professional societies, in the development of radiological protection standards. This is a topic that has been followed more through the pages of this journal than anywhere else so I will not rehearse the details. What has been clear over the period is that the use by ICRP of IRPA as a consultation mechanism with the profession has been very effective and carried considerable benefits for all involved. On the one hand it has made it easier for ICRP to deal with the views from the many thousands of professionals worldwide who are interested in the new recommendations by consolidating these views and providing many fora for discussion, especially at Regional Congresses. On the other hand it has enabled the profession to feel - correctly - that it has had some input to the development of ICRP thinking and promoted involvement and, hopefully, eventual ownership of the new recommendations when they emerge. In the end it is the members of IRPA who have to implement new recommendations, not the members of ICRP. I would not wish to imply that this has been the only consultation mechanism; ICRP itself has been very active and so have other bodies, especially NEA, but in this editorial I am talking about IRPA.Although some people do not like the term `stakeholder' (image of someone with a large piece of wood!), over these 4 years there is no doubt that IRPA has become a recognised stakeholder, on behalf of the profession, in the international arena. We have been involved in this way in conferences leading to international action plans covering education and training, protection of patients, occupational radiation protection and development of radiation safety infrastructures. Again this involvement is only in its early stages and in Madrid the societies will have to decide whether they want IRPA to continue to be involved in the implementation of the action plans.I mentioned the Regional Congresses. One of the developing initiatives that seem to be working effectively has been to actively promote regional interactions and groupings under the IRPA umbrella. Some of these have long histories, such as the Latin American and Iberian grouping which is partly geographical and partly linguistic and which held its 6th Regional Congress in Lima, Peru in November 2003. There have, however, been three `firsts' over the past 2 years about which I am particularly pleased.The closest to home was the First European IRPA Congress in Florence in October 2002. There have been, and will continue to be, smaller conferences and meetings involving groups of European societies, but I feel that this major Congress, which is intended to be held every 4 years midway between the IRPA Congresses, will provide a very good opportunity to promote cohesion and interaction (I am even tempted to say `harmonisation') in radiation protection within the wider Europe we now live in. The next one will be in Paris in May 2006 (springtime in Paris ... put it in your diary ...).The second `first' was an indirect outcome of the organisation of the meeting in Hiroshima, which brought the local societies together in a working relationship. Not wanting to lose this they decided to form a regional association and held the First Asian and Oceanic IRPA Regional Congress in Seoul, Korea, also in October 2002. Again the intention is make this a regular event with the next Congress likely to take place in China in 2006.At the first meeting of the Executive Council after Hiroshima we decided to focus on Africa in the 4 years running up to Madrid, as it is the continent with the smallest relative number of professional societies. Progress has been made but development of professionalism in radiation protection in Africa is a long-term programme that will need to be sustained to achieve its objectives. Nonetheless one concrete outcome was the First All-African IRPA Regional Congress in Johannesburg in May 2003. In addition to the scientific work this also enabled much to be done organisationally to promote professional interactions within Africa that will hopefully lead eventually to the creation of new societies. Once again I would not imply that IRPA is the only player in this but our broad objectives are the same as those of the IAEA, with whom we have been collaborating closely, and of programmes such as the `Radiation Safety without Borders' of the US Health Physics Society.At Hiroshima we were asked to develop a `Code of Ethics' for the profession with a view to having it adopted in Madrid. The SRP offered to host an internet discussion forum to enable the quite vigorous discussions at the ASF to be continued. The SRP did their bit very well but the looked-for discussion did not materialise. Perhaps we are not really `chat-room' people? In the end the Executive had to take the initiative by preparing a draft code and sending it round to societies for comment. This worked and a final draft for adoption is being prepared for Madrid. Ironically but unsurprisingly I am now - as I write this - receiving a number of comments.What else? We have developed a very extensive new website which I have as my home page so I know it is interesting and useful. We will find out how you see it in Madrid. We have moved the IRPA Executive Office to Paris and the Treasury to the United States. We have admitted new societies. We have ... I think you will need to come to Madrid to hear the full story.