Book
Safe Handling Of Radioisotopes, First Editions With Revised Appendix 1
Under its Statute the International Atomic Energy Agency is empowered to provide for the application of standards of safety for protection against radiation to its own operations and to operations making use of assistance provided by it or with which it is otherwise directly associated. To this end authorities receiving such assistance are required to observe relevant health and safety measures prescribed by the Agency.
As a first step, it was considered an urgent task to provide users of radioisotopes with a manual of practice for the safe handling of these
substances. The first edition of such a manual was published in 1958 and represented the first of the “Safety Series”, a series of manuals and codes on health and safety published by the Agency. It was prepared after careful consideration of existing national and international codes of radiation safety by a group of international experts and in consultation with other international bodies.
It was stated in the foreword to the first edition that this Manual was issued by the Agency as a provisional document which would be subject
to revision from tim e to time and that comments submitted to the In ternational Atomic Energy Agency’s Secretariat would be welcome. This edition presents the first revision. It incorporates in the Appendices the latest recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection and extracts from the report of the Committee II of the I.C.R.P. on permissible dose for internal radiation.
The Health Physics and Medical Addenda to this Manual, published as No. 2 and No. 3 in the Safety Series in 1960, give more complete advice
to the user on specialized topics. It is recommended that the Manual be taken into account as a basic reference document by Member States of the Agency in the preparation of national health and safety documents covering the use of radioisotopes.