The European ALARA Network
The European ALARA Network (EAN) promotes the optimisation of radiation protection (keeping exposures As Low As Reasonably Achievable – ALARA) across Europe. It brings together professionals, regulators, and stakeholders to share experience, develop guidance, and support the practical implementation of ALARA principles in various sectors, including industry, medicine, research, and the environment.
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This newsletter contains two contributions relevant to the medical sector. The first, based on inspections performed in Norway, points to a lack of practical knowledge on basic radiation protection issues among hospital personnel. This emphasises the importance of education and training in the radiation protection field. Elements from the inspection also showed the lack of awareness of certain responsibilities in the radiation protection field within the hospitals. This indicates that education and training in basic radiation protection is not enough  by itself and should form part of a broader ALARA/safety culture which covers the human factor and organisational aspects.

The second article discusses the setup of a sustainable network on application of the ALARA principle in the medical sector (EMAN) and identifies a set of success factors to achieve the goal. An interesting and an important element is that the EMAN project, from the beginning, broadens the scope to address the safety culture in the sector.

The issues raised in these articles will certainly be further discussed in our next ALARA workshop on "ALARA in the medical sector" which will consider how the ALARA principle can be effectively implemented with regard to both patient and staff exposures in diagnostic and therapeutic uses of ionising radiation.

Content of the issue