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Friday, July 16, 2010

Ethical aspects of radiation protection

Radiation protection is the professional field that deals with the protection of humans and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation. Ethical aspects of radiation protection are not much talked or discussed about openly. In fact, implementation of the principles of radiological protection i.e., justification, optimization and dose limitation should be subjected to and based on ethical considerations.

The very principles of radiation protection are based on the assumption that probability of stochastic effect like cancer induction is linearly proportional to dose without any threshold. This theory for low level exposure scenario is not based on sound human data but based on animal experiments. Now, whether it is ethically correct to apply this to humans?

In general, justification is a decision taken at government level (ex. Nuclear power) or by the doctors who recommend procedures involving radiation exposures, such as X-ray/CT scans. In the first case, risks and benefits are distributed unevenly over population groups. In the second case, can the un-necessary or possible over-exposures of patients in medical applications be ethically justified? How one can ethically justify exposures of temporary workers who are not under medical insurance or surveillance? Can some extra money compensate the risk of radiation exposures (risk to money trade-off)?

For optimization one needs the level of acceptable dose? Does this vary with the economic and social consideration of countries? Whether exposures exceeding dose limits, under any exposure scenarios, are ethically justified?

These ethical considerations are much more glaring in chemical, petrochemical and other industries where toxic chemicals, are routinely handled without much safety considerations. Comparatively, nuclear industry is better organized, regulated and safety record is quite satisfactory.