Stakeholder participation in nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and recovery in Spain: benefits and challenges of working together

Resilience after a nuclear accident: readiness in using mobile phone applications to measure radiation and health indicators in various groups (SHAMISEN SINGS project)

An anonymous web-based survey was developed to check different aspects (SHAMISEN SINGS project): stakeholder awareness and perceptions of available mobile applications (apps) for measuring ionising radiation doses and health/well-being indicators; whether they would be ready to use them in the post-accidental recovery; and what are their preferred methodologies to acquire information etc. The results show that participation of the citizens would be most beneficial during post-accident recovery, providing individual measurements of external ionizing dose and health/well-being parameters, with possible follow-up. Also, participants indicated different preferences for sources to gain knowledge on ionising radiation and for the functions that an ideal app should have. The level of awareness and readiness to use apps to measure ionising radiation dose depended on two main aspects: individual differences (age & gender) and whether people were from countries affected by the previous major accidents. We concluded that stakeholders could have benefits from the data management plan: (1) it potentiates resilience at individual and community level; (2) citizens' measurements contribute to environmental monitoring and public health screening; (3) linkages between different types of data (environmental exposure, individual behavioural diaries, and measurements of health indicators) allow to perform more rigorous epidemiological studies.

An ethical dimension to accident management and health surveillance

Many radiation protection actions carry a multitude of direct and indirect consequences that can impact on the welfare of affected populations. Health surveillance raises ethical challenges linked to privacy and data protection, as well as questions about the net benefit of screening. The SHAMISEN project recognized these issues and developed specific recommendations to highlight ethical challenges. Following a brief overview of ethical issues related to accident management, this paper presents the SHAMISEN recommendations: R1 The fundamental ethical principle of doing more good than harm should be central to accident management; and R4 Ensure that health surveillance respects the autonomy and dignity of affected populations, and is sensitive to any inequity in the distribution of risks and impacts. While a holistic approach to accident management means that decisions will be complicated by different values, perceptions and uncertainties about outcomes, addressing ethical issues could help ensure that the assumptions and potential conflicts behind eventual decisions are as transparent as possible.

The SHAMISEN Recommendations on preparedness and health surveillance of populations affected by a radiation accident

This paper, the last in the Special Issue (SI) on the SHAMISEN project, presents an overview of the SHAMISEN Recommendations for Preparedness and Health Surveillance of Populations Affected by a Radiation Accident. The recommendations are based on the lessons learnt from previous nuclear accidents, and the engagement activities with different stakeholder groups, described in the other papers of this SI. The SHAMISEN project developed a total of 28 recommendations. They include general recommendations, applicable across all phases of an accident, and specific recommendations for each of the three main phases: preparedness, early and intermediate, and long-term recovery. The recommendations are subdivided by topic: health surveillance, epidemiological studies, dose reconstruction, evacuation, and training of and communication with health personnel and other actors involved in liaising with affected populations. Each recommendation is divided into 3 sections - why, how and who - thus providing background and concrete advice as to how each SHAMISEN recommendation should be implemented and by whom. It is notable that many recommendations are also applicable to other disaster types, including the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The 2019 Bo Lindell Laureate Lecture: On the use of interdisciplinary, stakeholder-driven, radiation protection research in support of medical uses of ionising radiation

Medical exposures form the largest manmade contributor to total ionising radiation exposure of the UK population. In recent years, new technologies have been developed to improve treatment and prognosis of individuals treated with radiation for diseases such as cancer. However, there is evidence of public, patient, and medical professional concern that radiation protection regulations and practices, as well as understanding of potential long-term adverse health effects of radiation exposure (in the context of other health risks), have not always 'kept pace' with technological developments in this field. This is a truly complex, multi-disciplinary problem for the modern world.The 'Radiation Theme' of the Public Health England and Newcastle University Health Protection Research Unit on 'Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards' is addressing this need, with a key focus on a genuinely interdisciplinary approach bringing together world-leading epidemiologists, radiation biologists, clinicians, statisticians, and artists. In addition, the project has a strong grounding in public, patient, and medical professional involvement in research. Similarly, the EU-CONCERT-funded LDLensRad project seeks to understand the mechanisms of action of low-dose ionising radiation in the lens of the eye, and the potential contribution to the development of cataract - in contemporary research, such projects will only be considered successful when they make use of expertise from a variety of fields and when they are able to demonstrate that the outputs are not only of benefit to society, but that society understands and welcomes the benefits. Finally, successful engagement, training, and retention of early career scientists within this field is crucial for sustainability of the research. Herein, the contribution of embedded interdisciplinary working, stakeholder involvement, and training of early career scientists to recent advancements in the field of medical (and wider) radiation protection research is discussed and considered.