The European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) is an informal committee formed in 1997 following a meeting by the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that represents national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Fre ...

at the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

to review the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

's directive ''96/29Euratom'', issued in May of the previous year. ECRR is not a formal scientific advisory committee to the European Commission or to the European Parliament. Its report is published by the Green Audit. Dr. Busby is the secretary of ECRR.

First meeting

The Council of Europe directive was a wide-ranging ruling regarding the use and transport of natural and artificial radioactive materials within the European Union, but the inaugural ECRR meeting concentrated on the proposal of Article 4.1.c: "...radioactive substances in the production and manufacture of consumer goods...". The EU legislators had found it convenient to incorporate the findings of the

International Commission on Radiological Protection The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is an independent, international, non-governmental organization, with the mission to protect people, animals, and the environment from the harmful effects of ionising radiation. Its r ...

(ICRP) model for assessing radiation risk from internal emitters, but the ECRR challenged this and suggested that the model underestimates the risks by ''at least'' a factor of 10 "while..studies relating to certain types of exposure..suggest that the error is even greater".ECRR - CERI
''The Lesvos Declaration''
6 May 2009; Retrieved 2013-03-20 The ECRR have proposed a method of re-weighting the risk factors to take into account the biophysical properties of the particular isotopes involved.

Publications

* ''ECRR 2003: Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes. Regulators' Edition'' Green Audit. . Also available in French, . * ''ECRR 2006: Chernobyl 20 Years On: the Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident'' Green Audit. ; 2nd ed. 2009, . Also available in Spanish. * ''ECRR 2010: The Health Effects of Exposure to Low Doses of Ionizing Radiation: Regulators’ Edition'' Green Audit.
online
* 2011: ''Fukushima and Health: What to Expect: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, Lesvos Greece May 5/6th 2009 (Documents of the ECRR)'' Green Audit. .

Responses

''Chernobyl 20 Years On'' is cited in a letter by Professor Rudi H. Nussbaum from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

published in ''

Environmental Health Perspectives ''Environmental Health Perspectives'' (''EHP'') is a peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qua ...

'' which challenges the accepted view of the long-term health consequences from the incident. Shortly after the 2003 ''Recommendations'' was published the United Kingdom's

Health Protection Agency The Health Protection Agency (HPA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It was an organisation that was set up by the UK government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and envi ...

issued a response, in which they describe the ECRR as "...a self-styled organisation with no formal links to official bodies" and criticize its findings as "arbitrary and ithouta sound scientific basis. Furthermore, there are many misrepresentations of heICRP".

Membership

Alice Stewart Dr Alice Mary Stewart, ''née'' Naish (4 October 190623 June 2002) was a British physician and epidemiologist specialising in social medicine and the effects of radiation on health. Her study of radiation-induced illness among workers at the H ...

was the first Chair of the ECRR. The Chair of the Scientific Committee is Professor

Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake (born in Osnabrück, Germany on 28 September 1935) is a German physicist and mathematician. Her research has assessed the biological effects of ionizing radiation at low dosage levels. From 1973 and until her retirement in 2 ...

Christopher Busby Christopher Busby (born 1 September 1945) is a British scientist primarily studying the health effects of internal ionising radiation. Busby is a director of Green Audit Limited, a private company, and scientific advisor to the Low Level Radiat ...

is Scientific Secretary.

References

External links

euradcom.eu
European Committee on Radiation Risk website (euradcom.org domain name stolen and that website is false) {{DEFAULTSORT:European Committee On Radiation Risk Health and the European Union International scientific organizations based in Europe Nuclear safety and security * Radiation protection organizations 1997 in Europe