Radiation safety without borders initiative

The Radiation Safety Without Borders (RSWB) initiative provides peer support to radiation safety professionals in developing countries, which bolsters the country's infrastructure and may lead the way for IRPA Associate membership. The Health Physics Society (HPS) recognizes that many nations do not possess the infrastructure to adequately control and beneficially use ionizing radiation. In a substantial number of countries, organized radiation protection programs are minimal. The RSWB initiative relies on HPS volunteers to assist their counterparts in developing countries with emerging health physics and radiation safety programs, but whose resources are limited, to provide tools that promote and support infrastructure and help these professionals help themselves. RSWB experience to date has shown that by providing refurbished instruments, promoting visits to a HPS venue, or visiting a country 'just to look' provide valuable technical and social infrastructure experiences often missing in the developing nation's cadre of radiation safety professionals. HPS/RSWB with the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pairs chapters with a country, with the expectation that the country's professional radiation safety personnel will form a foreign HPS chapter, and the country eventually will become an IRPA Associate. Although still in its formative stage, RSWB nonetheless has gotten valuable information in spite of the small number of missions. The RSWB initiative continues to have significant beneficial impacts, including: - Improving the radiation safety infrastructure of the countries that participate; - Assisting those countries without professional radiation safety societies to form one; - Strengthening the humanitarian efforts of the United States; - Enhancing Homeland Security efforts through improved control of radioactive material internationally. Developing countries, including those in Latin America, underwritten by IAEA, may take advantage of resources that HPS members can provide with very little effort. Such items as refurbished hand-held survey instruments and professional journals expand the scope of many programs that lack the vital radiation protection infrastructure we take for granted. Although the HPS with its RSWB initiative has no requirement to fill infrastructure voids, a visit from a HPS volunteer professional sometimes can form a bridge that will help build the infrastructure. Even a short visit could provide valuable information about the status of a country's infrastructure. HPS Chapter volunteers then can proceed to help their professional counterparts, providing the much-needed support for the eventual buildup of their radiation protection infrastructure. It is anticipated that RSWB's long term vision to support developing countries' health physics infrastructure, and eventual IRPA Associate membership, will continue to be supported by this and future HPS administrations. (author)