The NRC is sponsoring this session to listen to perspectives on the recent recommendation by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) to reduce the dose limit to the lens of the eye to 5 rads (50 milligray) per year—equivalent to 5 rem (50 millisieverts per year for low linear energy transfer radiation. The NRC established its current dose limit of 15 rem (150 millisieverts) per year in 1991 based on the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s (ICRP’s) recommendations at the time (i.e., ICRP Publication 60). The NCRP proposed reduction is based on recent epidemiological evidence suggesting that vision impairing cataracts can occur at doses lower than previously considered when the current NRC dose limit was established.

• Terry Brock, Senior Health Physicist, Division of Systems Analysis, RES/NRC tel: 301-415-1793, e-mail: Terry.Brock@@nrc.gov

• Welcome Remarks
  Terry Brock, Senior Health Physicist, Division of Systems Analysis, RES/NRC
• Dose to the Lens of the Eye - The Latest Recommendations
  Michael Boyd, ICRP Committee Memmber, International Commission on Radiological Protection
• Guidance on Radiation Dose Limits for the Lens of the Eye - NCRP Commentary #26
  Lawrence T. Dauer, Co-Chair, U.S. National Council on Radiological Protection and Measurements Scientific Committee 1-23
• Hp(3) Comes into Focus - Views from a Health Physicist
  Christopher N. Passmore, Vice President-Dosimetry Services, Landauer, Inc.
• Epidemiology and Mechanistic Effects of Radiation on the Lens of the Eye: Review and Scientific Appraisal of the Literature
  Phung Kim Tran, Health Physics Program Manager, Electric Power Research Institute

• Terry Brock, Senior Health Physicist, Division of Systems Analysis, RES/NRC tel: 301-415-1793, e-mail: Terry.Brock@@nrc.gov