ASN Report 2018

Particular attention is required in order to control and reduce the doses linked to medical imaging, more specifically when alternative techniques can be used for a same given indication, because the multiplication of the most heavily irradiating examinations for the same person could lead to a final effective dose value of several tens of millisieverts; at this level of exposure, certain epidemiological surveys have revealed the occurrence of radiation-induced cancers. Managing the doses of ionising radiation delivered to persons during a medical examination remains a priority for ASN. A second plan of action, which extends the previous one (2011-2017), drawn up in collaboration with the stakeholders (institutional and professional), was published in July 2018. A new IRSN assessment of how doses delivered to patients are evolving is expected in 2019. 3.4  ̶  Exposure of non-human species (animal and plant species) The international radiation protection system was created to protect humans against the effects of ionising radiation. Environmental radioactivity is thus assessed with respect to its impact on human beings and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is today considered that the current standards guarantee the protection of other species. Protection of the environment against the radiological risk and more specifically the protection of non-human species, must however be guaranteed independently of the effects on humans. Pointing out that this objective is already incorporated in the national legislation, ASN will ensure that the impact of ionising radiation on non-human species is effectively included in the regulations and in the authorisations for nuclear activities as soon as evaluation methods are available. On the basis of the IRSN appraisal report, the Advisory Committee for Radiation Protection in Industrial and Research Applications of Ionising Radiation and for the Environment (GPRADE) adopted an opinion in September 2015. Following the recommendations of this opinion, at the end of 2017 ASN set up a pluralistic and multi-disciplinary working group coordinated by IRSN to produce a methodological guide for assessing the impact of ionising radiation on the flora and fauna. The draft guide is to be submitted to ASN in the first quarter of 2020. Total number of procedures and associated collective effective dose for each imaging method (rounded values) in France in 2012 IMAGING METHOD PROCEDURES COLLECTIVE EFFECTIVE DOSE NUMBER % mSv % Conventional radiology (dentistry excluded) 44,175,500 54.0 18,069,200 17.7 Dental radiology 27,616,000 33.8 165,700 0.2 Computed Tomography 8,484,000 10.4 72,838,900 71.2 Diagnostic interventional radiology 377,000 0.5 3,196,400 3.1 Nuclear medicine 1,103,000 1.3 7,928,300 7.8 Total 81,755,500 100.0 102,198,500 100.0 Source: IRSN 2014 Table 4 104  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 01 – NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES: IONISING RADIATION AND HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS