Current News Archive

The plenary session at the 2018 Health Physics Society Annual Meeting in Cleveland will focus on low-dose radiation—research, dosimetry, regulatory impact, and hidden burden of conservatism. "Health Physics and the Realm of Low-Dose Radiation" is the organizing theme of the session, which will be held Monday, 16 July, 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Presentations

• Welcome from the Honorable Frank Jackson, mayor of Cleveland.
• To set the stage for the rest of the plenary, Dr. Eric Abelquist will open the session with comments on low-dose radiation research update, minimum dose constraint (National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement's negligible individual dose and concept of ALARA stopping point), and public communication challenges.
• Dr. James Conca, an independent writer frequently contributing to Forbes, will be the Dade Moeller Memorial Lecturer. He will discuss radiation limits and their impact on decommissioning and the overall expense when you regulate to levels less than background.
• Dr. Roger Coates, International Radiation Protection Association president, will be the Morgan Lecturer. In "Prudence and the Hidden Burden of Conservatism," he will address the need to ensure a more conscious and appropriate balance between the ethical values of prudence and beneficence, which takes account of societal "value for money" and the public benefit.
• Dr. Antone Brooks will be the Landauer Lecturer. For many years, Dr. Brooks was the chief scientist of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science low-dose program. He recently authored the book Low Dose Radiation: The History of the U.S. Department of Energy Research Program, which chronicles the DOE science program. He will give an overview of the DOE low-dose radiation program.
• Dr. Rui Qiu, from the China Radiation Safety Society, is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Physics of Tsinghua University in China. Her talk, "Latest Development and Applications of the Multiscale Chinese Reference Phantoms," will discuss her work yielding data that provides references for the revision of the national standard for the estimation of the examinee's organ doses generated by x-ray diagnosis in China.