Overview of medical occupational exposure issues in the European Countries

The aim of this paper is to set the scene for this, the 6th European ALARA Network (EAN) Workshop, the topic of which is Occupational Exposure Optimisation in the Medical Field and Radiopharmaceutical Industry. As with previous Workshops, apart from providing a forum for the exchange of information and experiences, it has an objective, the identification of recommendations to the European Commission, regulatory bodies and other involved parties. The previous five Workshops have rise to some 35 recommendations. Stemming from these several new projects have been started. For example. . The nd Workshop on Good Practices in Industry and Research identified the need to improve the mechanisms for improving feedback and learning the lessons from accidents and incidents. This lead to an EC pilot study, European Union Radiation Accident and Incident Data Exchange Project (EURAIDE) which is covered in a later paper. . The 3rd Workshop on Managing Internal Internal Exposure gave rise to an EC project: Strategies and Methods for Optimisation of Internal Exposure (SMOPIE) of workers from industrial processes involving naturally occurring radioactive material. . The 5th Workshop Industrial Radiography-Improvements in Radiation Protection has give rise to an EC supported Joint Working Group from EAN and the European Non-Destructive Testing Society to take forward improvements in industrial radiography. The progress of these initiative can be followed in the EAN newsletter. It is to be hoped that the recommendations from this Workshop, will similarly lead to useful programmes of work. . In order to facilitate the development of recommendations, the Workshop Programme includes two sessions where participants will split into a number of Working Groups to develop ideas. These will be reported on in the final session of the programme and we will attempt to bring together the strands into a coherent set of recommendations. As a further aid to this process this paper briefly reviews the overall subject of each session and plus forward some questions that might be addressed in the session and subsequent Working Groups. (Author)