Program Area Committee Research Articles

NCRP Program Area Committee 2: Operational Radiation Safety.

Program Area Committee 2 of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements provides guidance for radiation safety in occupational settings in a variety of industries and activities. The Committee completed three reports in recent years covering recommendations for the development and administration of radiation safety programs for smaller educational institutions, requirements for self-assessment programs that improve radiation safety and identify and correct deficiencies, and a comprehensive process for effective investigation of radiological incidents. Ongoing work includes a report on sealed radioactive source controls and oversight of a report on radioactive nanomaterials focusing on gaps within current radiation safety programs. Future efforts may deal with operational radiation safety programs in fields such as the safe use of handheld and portable x-ray fluorescence analyzers, occupational airborne radioactive contamination, unsealed radioactive sources, or industrial accelerators.

Program Area Committee Summaries.

Program Area Committee Summaries.

Radiation protection in medicine (program area committee 4) session Q&A.

Radiation protection in medicine (program area committee 4) session Q&A.

Radiation education, risk communication, outreach, and policy (program area committee 7)-session Q&A.

Radiation education, risk communication, outreach, and policy (program area committee 7)-session Q&A.

Framework and need for dosimetry and measurements: quantitation matters.

It has always been recognized that radiation measurements and dosimetry (M &8; D) play a crucial role in developing radiation protection programs for workers and members of the public, particularly as they relate to mitigating potential health risks from exposure to radiation. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) has always devoted significant resources to these scientific disciplines in terms of its published reports, and it is anticipated that this emphasis will continue. This includes focus on both external and internal radiation exposure as well as radiation and radioactivity measurement methodology. NCRP, as part of its management of scientific activities, has designated Program Area Committee 6 to focus on radiation M &8; D. This paper briefly describes how radiation M &8; D has been addressed historically in terms of NCRP activities. It reports how the emphases have changed over the years and how NCRP has worked effectively with other radiation protection organizations, such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection, to leverage its expertise in advancing the science of M &8; D. Current and prospective activities in M &8; D by NCRP are also described to frame the future in these areas of interest necessary for the optimum application of radiation protection principles and programs.

Social breakdown syndrome: environmental and host factors associated with chronicity.

Eight years ago APHA Program Area Committee on Mental Health stated:' There is one type of mental malfunctioning which occurs in many different chronic mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia, mental retardation, and various organic psychoses. (See Table I.) It is responsible for a very large part of institutionalized mentally disordered; it is responsible for much of other forms of extreme social disability seen in these illnesses. This form of mental reaction in presence of mental disorders is largely a socially determined reaction pattern which committee believes can be identified as a major target for community mental health programs today. It is called the Social Breakdown Syndrome. The Program Area Committee had indicated that acute episodes of SBS were very common and that chronic, long-term episodes were major preventable cause of severe disability. Our research group has developed ascertainment techniques to locate cases of severe Social Breakdown Syndrome by determining a set of some 22 objective facts regarding a person's functioning during a particular week.2 Around 1960 when these Program Area Committee statements were being written, we ascertained that annual incidence of chronic SBS (over 1 year in duration) was about 24 per 100,000 in ages 16-64 in Dutchess County, N.Y. Following a reorganization of delivery of psychiatric services for residents of that county-a reorganization designed to prevent chronic forms of SBS-the annual incidence dropped to about 12 per 100,000.3 This is a major improvement, because recovery rates from SBS episodes over one year in duration are very low. Only about half of these episodes will terminate in next five years.4 The handicap is severe, disability almost total. But a remaining incidence of 12 per 100,000 is not trivial-it is higher than suicide rate. What can be done to still further reduce annual incidence of chronic SBS? We first delineated personal factors which could identify a group of new SBS cases at high risk of becoming chronic. We looked at factors known Ernest M. Gruenberg, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Danielle M. Turns, M.D.; Steven P. Segal, M.S.W.; and Murray Solomon, M.S.

Family Planning. A Guide for State and Local Agencies. Prepared by the Program Area Committee on Population and Public Health 1968. New York, The American Public Health Association, Inc., 1968, IX p. 154 p.

Family Planning. A Guide for State and Local Agencies. Prepared by the Program Area Committee on Population and Public Health 1968. New York, The American Public Health Association, Inc., 1968, IX p. 154 p. - Volume 37 Issue 4

Basic health principles of housing and its environment. APHA Program Area Committee on Housing and Health, 1968.

Basic health principles of housing and its environment. APHA Program Area Committee on Housing and Health, 1968.

Program Area Committee on Public Health Administration

Program Area Committee on Public Health Administration

Keeping up with suburban water supply requirements.

ONE OF THE primary justifications for the formation of many state health departments and the original reason for having sanitary engineers in them came from the need to eliminate waterborne epidemics which continued through the 19th into the early 20th century. Since then engineers and related disciplines have continued to refine and extend water purification practice. Much progress has been made since Mark Twain visited St. Louis in the 1890's and remarked that the reason hotels of the city furnished half a dozen cakes of soap with each bath was because once the soap slipped out of the hand, there was no use looking for it. Now, a report of the Association offers a new view of the reasons for environmental control which supports those who believe that an adequate water supply-one which assures water at the tap of each customer whenever and for whatever he wants it-is of major public health concern. On the basis of conclusions in this report a water supply does not meet the health requirements of the community unless it is always available in good quantity, even though it may always be free from bacteria and chemically acceptable. In a 1958 report of the Program Area Committee on Environmental Health, four levels of public health concern are described. They are the prevention of death, the prevention of disease, the promotion of efficiency and well-being, and for enjoyment of life. To illustrate this concept, a health official might, in time of great disaster, approve public drinking of any water in order to avoid death from thirst even though he might not know that the water is pure. The level of public health concern in this example would be the lowest-the prevention of death. Most state health department public water supply programs are at the next level; they are aimed at the prevention of disease. This means striving for better levels of bacterial quality in the raw and finished water, improvement of chlorination practice and carefully refined improvements to water coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and taste and odor control. Attention has been given to adequacy of supply and distribution systems because of the hazards of negative pressures and back-siphonage of contaminated water into the system. These efforts by health departments have not been as extensive as they might be if public health administrators were convinced that maintenance of efficient performance and providing