Supervision by the authorities and on account of sole responsibility

If radiation protection is not to miss its purpose, it has to be preventive. This results in the fact that supervision by the authorities and sole responsibility in preventive radiation protection can only be seen as a common effort, i.e. taking the FRG as an example, on three levels: 1) It is the duty of the Bund to adapt all legal regulations to the existing state of science and technology and to maintain this standard, in order that the statements made therein are clear and that they can be expressed in figures which have to be adapted to the risks and which have to be comparable with other permissible risks, 2) it is the task of the Laender authorities to see that the legal regulations are adhered to in individual cases, i.e. to examine the conformity of applications with existing legal provisions, and above all, to supervise that those responsible for radiation protection have their special qualifications, and that the personnel at their disposal has its equipment, 3) it is the duty of those responsible for radiation protection and their personnel to practice radiation protection in sole responsibility at their place of work and for the environment. Supervision is a success only in the case of each level being first of all its own supervisor, and if there is a constant mutual exchange of experience, as without this exchange each sector lives its own life. The supervision of measurement techniques by the authorities only fulfils its purpose if measurements supplement each other and if work is not done twice. Taking personnel dosimetry, possibilities are presented. However, where measurements are taken it is inevitable that equipment and methods are compared. (orig.)