IRPA Executive Council meets in Tampa, Florida, 14–15 June 2002

Abstract

The Executive Council of IRPA (International Radiation Protection Association) is responsible for progressing the affairs of IRPA between the World Congresses. The Executive Council accepted an invitation from the US Health Physics Society to meet just before the recent Annual Meeting in Tampa as a means of increasing the interaction between IRPA and the HPS. In addition this meeting falling mid-way between Hiroshima and Madrid offered a good opportunity to check progress on the actions the Executive Council was mandated to carry out during the General Assembly and Associate Societies Forum in Hiroshima.New IRPA SocietiesThe new Lithuanian Radiation Protection Society was admitted during the meeting as the 43rd Associate Society. Over the next two years the Executive Council has decided to focus its efforts on a small number of countries that should have a sufficient core of professionals to form a society. These are Belarus, Malaysia, Morocco, Panama, Paraguay and the Ukraine.IRPA Congress, Madrid, May 2004An important part of the work of the executive Council is to monitor arrangements for the next Congress in Madrid. At the meeting the Second Announcement and Call for Papers for the Congress was reviewed and approved. After the opening Sievert Lecture there is a well structured programme covering all aspects of protection including protection against non-ionising radiation, medical aspects and protection of the environment. To enable participants to navigate the parallel sessions they have been colour coded by major topic areas. There will also be a number of plenaries from the major international bodies including UNSCEAR, ICRP and ICNIRP.Bidding proceduresTo make it less onerous for Societies to offer to host an IRPA Congress the Executive Council has been examining the bidding procedure. A revised and simplified procedure that is still in full agreement with the Constitution has been agreed and details will be circulated to Societies and posted on the website. In essence the new procedures limit the material that must be submitted to the absolute essentials but allow for more interaction between the Executive Council and Societies making an offer before the offers are presented to the General Assembly.Regional CongressesThe Executive Council reviewed arrangements for a number of IRPA Regional Congresses in the lead up to Madrid. These are the European IRPA Congress 2002 in Florence, Italy, in October 2002; the First Asia and Oceanic Radiation Protection Congress in Seoul, South Korea, also in October 2002; the First African Regional Congress on Radiation Safety in Johannesburg, South Africa, in May 2003 where the Executive Council will have its next meeting; and the next Central European Regional Congress in Bratislava in the autumn of 2003.IRPA Code of EthicsAt the Associate Societies Forum in Hiroshima one of the major items discussed was the need for a Code of Ethics for those Societies that do not have one. The Executive Council was charged with consulting Societies and preparing a proposal for adoption in Madrid. To implement this a web-based discussion forum was set up by the SRP linked to the IRPA website. This went active a few months ago but did not stimulate much discussion. The Executive Council has therefore put up as a proposal for discussion an `IRPA Code of Ethics' based on the Codes of the US, Australasian and Canadian Societies, together with that recently adopted by SRP.Standards developmentIRPA acted as a conduit for interaction and comments on the ICRP proposals from the Profession through Societies leading to a discussion session in Hiroshima and the collected comments being submitted to ICRP in July 2001. IRPA, with the agreement of ICRP, hopes to maintain this opportunity for the Profession to have more influence than hitherto in the standards development process, including the development of standards for protection of the environment.PublicationsIt was decided in Hiroshima that the IRPA Bulletin and other ad hoc communications would be replaced by internet-based methods. A major achievement has been the creation, from scratch, of a substantialIRPA website. The website is based in France at CEPN. It can be found at www.irpa.net and now contains all IRPA information including news and meetings. In the last few weeks it has been expanded to include the full proceedings of all past IRPA Congresses in Adobe form for free downloading. Geoffrey A M Webb IRPA President