I thank the Chairman and the members of the joint committee for the invitation to the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to attend this meeting. We are pleased to have the opportunity to brief the committee on recent developments in the work of the RPII. Our chairman, Professor Eugene Kennedy, regrets that he is unable to attend today's meeting but he and the board would be very happy to meet the committee at a future date if the members would find it useful.
The aim of the RPII is to protect people from the harmful effects of exposure to ionising radiation. We do this by regulating all those who use ionising radiation in Ireland, by monitoring the levels of radiation to which Irish people are exposed and by providing advice for the Government and the public on radiation hazards and the measures needed to protect people. As the joint committee members will be aware, ionising radiation is emitted by man-made sources used both in industry and medicine and by natural radiation sources present in our environment, such as radon gas and cosmic radiation.
In May 2008, the RPII published a comprehensive study, Radiation Doses Received by the Irish Population, which detailed the radiation sources to which Irish people are exposed and the average level of exposure from each source. This study updated our existing data and it was the first time that all sources were assessed together, thereby providing a baseline against which we can measure changes in radiation exposure over time. The study showed that the estimated average annual radiation dose in Ireland from all sources of radiation is 3,950 units of exposure or microsieverts. Of this total exposure, 86% is due to natural radiation sources, about 14% is due to medical sources and the remainder of less than 1% is due to artificial sources. I will explain each of these in turn in a little more detail.
The natural radiation sources to which we are all exposed include radon and thoron gas in buildings and cosmic radiation. We also receive a radiation dose from small amounts of natural radioactivity in the food we eat and from the natural radioactivity that is present in the ground. Radon is by far the largest source of radiation exposure and it contributes about 56% of the total. Cosmic radiation, thoron, food and the ground each contribute between 6%and 8% of the total.
In our study we also estimated the radiation doses to Irish people from widely used medical techniques such as X-ray, CT scanning and nuclear medical examinations. We compiled data from Irish hospitals on the number of examinations undertaken each year together with the average radiation dose associated with each examination and used these values to estimate an average dose to each person. This was estimated to be about 540 microsieverts or 14% of the total radiation exposure.
We also looked at exposure to artificial sources of radiation to which Irish people are exposed. These include fall-out that is present in soil following the Chernobyl accident and the nuclear weapons testing conducted throughout the world in the 1950s and 1960s. Radioactivity present in the Irish environment as a result of discharges from Sellafield and the use of radioactive sources at work also contribute to the radiation dose from artificial sources. We estimated each of these individual components and they give rise to a total radiation dose of 15 microsieverts or 0.4% of the total radiation dose.
I have briefly outlined the average situation with regard to radiation doses received in Ireland. In its work the RPII takes account of the average doses, but it also seeks to address individual doses which can be very different for exposure to both natural and artificial radiation. In addition to minimising actual exposure, an important aspect of the RPII's work is to prevent unnecessary exposure. I will now briefly outline the main areas of the RPII's work.
I have already highlighted the very significant contribution arising from exposure to radon in buildings. This exposure to radon represents a serious risk to the health of Irish people and RPII estimates that between 150 to 200 lung cancer deaths in Ireland each year are linked to radon exposure. The number of lung cancer deaths can be reduced if the radon level in every home is measured and if remedial action is taken where a high level is found. To date only 36,000 houses of a total housing stock of about 1.75 million have been measured by RPII. Of these houses, 4,600 or 13% of those measured have been found to have radon levels above the reference level of 200 Bq/m3, with 452 having levels above 800 Bq/m3. In summary, only about 2% of the national housing stock has been measured for radon and we are aware that a very small proportion of those houses found to have high levels have been remediated.
RPII is continuing to proactively engage with all of the relevant stakeholders, underlining the need for each to play their part in developing a national approach to address this serious public health issue. In particular, in the follow-up campaign to the extremely high radon level found in a workplace in Mallow in mid-2007, the RPII worked very effectively with the Health Service Executive from a public health point of view and with the Health and Safety Authority from an occupational health perspective. The RPII has also welcomed the very proactive and positive initiatives undertaken both by Cork County Council and Mallow Town Council in measuring radon in social housing in their areas. This work is continuing in 2009 and the RPII has already made two presentations in Cobh at the invitation of the town council. We are due to publish a joint statement on radon with the HSE and are working with several local authorities to address the radon issue in their area. We are also working with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to see if funding can be made more widely available for radon measurement and remediation in social housing.
X-ray equipment and radiation sources have very many beneficial uses in society today, particularly in medicine and industry. In Ireland, for example, radiation sources are widely used in the diagnosis of disease and the treatment of cancer. Such uses bring positive benefits to individual patients and to society in general, but because of the inherent hazards associated with ionising radiation, radiation sources must be properly regulated and controlled. The RPII devotes significant effort to ensuring that all enterprises using radiation sources are licensed and that they have appropriate procedures in place to manage the radiation hazard. The RPII's regulatory programme includes inspection of licensees and the inspection process has recently been accredited to the relevant ISO standard. At the end of 2008, more than 1,700 licences were in force. The principal challenges in the regulatory area have been rapid increase in the number of private hospitals seeking a licence to use radioactive sources for medical purposes and the increasing complexity and sophistication of the techniques being employed. The expansion in the delivery of radiotherapy services by public hospitals as part of the national cancer control programme will also be challenging from a radiological protection perspective and will require a step increase in the availability of suitably experienced medical physics staff to support the programme. We are working closely with those involved to ensure that these new facilities are properly managed and staffed from a radiological protection point of view.
The joint committee will be aware that the RPII has for many years highlighted the lack of a national facility for storage of radioactive sources and materials that are no longer in use as a significant gap in Ireland's radiation protection infrastructure. The current situation whereby such sources are stored on site by some 80 individual licensees raises serious concerns about their long term safety and security and is out of line with best international practice. We are very pleased that a high level Interdepartmental committee chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, has been established to address this issue and we are participating actively in the committee to bring about a solution. In the interim, we are undertaking joint inspections with officers from the National Crime Prevention Office to ensure that the security arrangements put in place by individual licensees are of a high standard.
In the RPII we are very aware of Government and public concern about the activities at Sellafield. When we were last before this committee in 2005, we set out in detail the findings of our visit to Sellafield the previous year. At that time, we highlighted our concern at the practice of storing highly radioactive liquid waste in tanks on the Sellafield site. Since 2005, mainly due to operational problems with the THORP plant, the volume of this material has been reducing at a faster rate than had been indicated, with a consequent reduction in the associated risk to Ireland. We are continuing to enhance our in-house arrangements to respond to a nuclear incident abroad and are actively engaging with other organisations under the framework for major emergency management.
While we have always maintained a good working relationship with the UK nuclear regulators, these contacts have intensified in recent years with an increasing flow of information to us. During 2009, representatives from the RPII have been invited by the UK Environment Agency to participate in a review of discharges of radioactivity from Sellafield and by the nuclear installations inspectorate to participate in a review of their regulatory infrastructure.
We continue also to give priority to our monitoring programmes as they are the basis on which we are in a position to provide advice for the Government and the public. During 2008, we carried out a major study of marine habits along the north east coast to ensure that our marine monitoring programme continues accurately to assess the exposure to the population from radioactivity in the marine environment. For 2009, we are planning a major strategic review of all our monitoring activities by international experts to ensure that our programmes continue to be in line with best international practice and to meet the needs of the Government and the public. That completes my presentation to the joint committee.
My colleagues and I will be very happy to take questions on our work on radiation doses received by the Irish population or any aspect of the RPII's work.
