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ARPANSA develops international film dosimetry audits

11 November 2024

Medical physicists at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) have worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop a global radiotherapy audit method.

The project was led by experts at ARPANSA’s Australian Clinical Dosimetry Service – Dr Sabeena Beveridge and Dr Andrew Alves.

Dr Alves says ARPANSA developed a quality assurance method to accurately calculate the radiotherapy dose and treatment placement. He says this will make quality radiation treatment accessible to all patients irrespective of where they live.

‘The IAEA called upon ARPANSA’s expertise in radiotherapy dose auditing to publish a verification method that can be used around the world to test the accuracy of film dosimetry,’ Dr Alves said.

‘We recommended film dosimetry because when employed accurately it is inexpensive, easy to use, widely available and, crucially, can test that the radiation dose will be directed at the cancerous tumor and not at healthy organs in the body.’

Film dosimetry works because when exposed to radiation doses, the specialised film changes colour.

These films are placed inside models of the human body, called phantoms, which are exposed to radiation. The films are then taken out of the models and analysed by scientists.

Approximately 80,000 Australians received radiotherapy treatment in the last year, with numbers continuing to increase over time.

As the Australian Government’s primary radiation protection authority, ARPANSA supports accuracy in cancer care ensuring that radiotherapy is accurate through our audit program.

Read more about this work in an article published in Medical Physics.

ARPANSA Annual Report for 2023-24 tabled

25 October 2024

The 2023-24 Annual Report of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has been tabled in Parliament and is now available to read on our website and the Federal Government's Transparency Portal.

The report covers the activities of ARPANSA and its supporting committees, as well as the agency’s performance against key activities and financial objectives.

ARPANSA’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Gillian Hirth AO reflected that the past year has been one of significant change, driven by ARPANSA’s continued engagement and support of Australia's nuclear-powered submarine capability stewardship arrangements.

‘I am proud that staff have risen to meet the challenge of substantial new programs of work, all the while maintaining our ongoing commitment to delivering regulatory excellence, radiological protection and community engagement,’ said Dr Hirth.

This last year also saw an expansion in ARPANSA’s remit, as the agency faced a higher than usual volume of complex regulatory assessments due to planned works at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Lucas Heights facilities. ARPANSA also received a licence application from the Australian Submarine Agency to prepare a site for a controlled industrial facility. Public consultations and regulatory approvals were key components of ARPANSA's oversight during this period.

This was delivered alongside the agency’s unwavering commitment to our business-as-usual activities, which ensure we are protecting the Australian public and environment from the harmful effects of radiation. Some highlights included:

ARPANSA’s engagement in international nuclear security, research and health advice, and engagement with Pacific nations
ongoing work in the provision of risk management and mitigation relating to a radiological or nuclear incident
enhancement of our regulatory systems and alignment with international best practice
a deep dive into ARPANSA’s approach to fostering innovation in the workplace.

Read the full ARPANSA Annual Report 2023-24 on the Transparency Portal.

ARPANSA scientist provides radio wave measurement expertise to international study

7 October 2024

Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) scientist Dr Chhavi Bhatt has contributed to a European study that reviewed radio wave measurement methods and practices.

‘ARPANSA uses the highest quality radio wave measurement tools available, but not all agencies globally have the same access to the specialised equipment that we do,’ Dr Bhatt said.

‘This review found there is a need for lower cost equipment that is accessible to more scientists to measure radio waves.’

Dr Stuart Henderson leads ARPANSA’s radio wave and UV exposure measurement programs.

‘While our studies have shown that exposure to radio waves is well within the safety limit, ARPANSA will continue to study radio wave exposure from wireless technologies to evaluate exposure,’ Dr Henderson said.

‘Being able to accurately measure radiation exposure in communities is crucial in ensuring public safety and investigating potential health effects of radio waves.’

In 2023, Dr Bhatt and Dr Henderson published a peer-reviewed paper that surveyed radio wave exposure across Melbourne.

The paper found that exposure was well below the safety limits.

ARPANSA is currently conducting radio wave measurements in regional areas.

As the Australian Government’s primary radiation protection authority, ARPANSA provides evidence-based health advice to government and the community on radio wave exposure.

ARPANSA has published a range of radiation exposure surveys and studies on its website: https://www.arpansa.gov.au/research-and-expertise/surveys  

You can access the European consortium paper that Dr Bhatt contributed to at Environmental Research.

ARPANSA invites community feedback on environmental values

23 September 2023

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is seeking feedback from stakeholders and community members to provide input into community values for environmental monitoring and assessment.

Input from members of the public will help ensure ARPANSA’s monitoring programs, including our ultraviolet (UV) measurements and radionuclide monitoring activities, take into account the needs and values of the wider community. A set of proposed values for environmental monitoring and assessment are available for feedback.

The proposed values are:

Ecosystem health - the overall health and integrity of the ecosystem and wildlife populations.
Cultural and spiritual heritage - protecting traditional land use and sites of importance to First Nations peoples.
Food and drinking water safety - food and water are safe for consumption.
Clean air - air is safe for human activities in the environment.
Recreation and environment - recreation activities can be enjoyed safely.
Economic activity - a safe environment for industrial use and economic benefit.
Public advice - relevant and accurate information to support decision making.

The feedback survey is available on the ARPANSA website and is open until 11.59pm Thursday 31 October 2024.

Survey responses will be used to validate and refine the community values to be considered in ARPANSA monitoring programs to ensure they accurately reflect the values of the Australian public.

Participate in the community survey: https://consult.arpansa.gov.au/hub/ema-survey-2024/

WHO systematic review finds no evidence that RF-EMF exposure impacts cognitive performance

Literature review date

September 2024

Article publication date

July 2024

Summary

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effect of radiofrequency electromagnetic energy (RF EME) on cognitive performance in human experimental studies. The review included 50 studies in the meta-analysis (2,433 participants) from 15 countries that were conducted between 2001 and 2021. It assessed cognitive performance of five (of the 7) cognitive domains (Orientation and attention, Perception, Memory, Construction and motor performance, and Concept formation and reasoning), including 19 (of 35) cognitive domain subclasses as defined by Lezak et al (2004). Each subclass was assessed based on the speed and accuracy of the participant performing tasks associated with that particular subclass (attentional capacity, concentration, etc). Most of the included studies used 2G-era mobile phone RF EME as the exposure source. Certainty of evidence and risk of bias were also evaluated according to OHAT-GRADE approach.

The authors reported no statistically significant results, indicating that RF-EME exposure has not impact on cognitive performance on human in experimental studies for all of the 19 subclasses tested. However, the certainty in these results ranged from high to low. Three of the 19 subclasses were not able to be tested for both speed and accuracy. Of 35 meta-analyses performed on the subclasses, a majority (20) of them provided high certainty of evidence that RF EME exposure results in little to no difference in cognitive outcome. The evidence on the effect of RF EME on the remaining 16 subclasses of the cognitive domains was uncertain. This uncertainty was due to limitations in the study quality, inconsistency in the results or imprecision of the combined effect size estimate. Overall, the review reported no evidence that RF EME exposure impacts cognitive performance.

Link to

The effect of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields on cognitive performance in human experimental studies: Systematic review and meta-analyses

Published in

Environment International

ARPANSA commentary

The overall conclusion of the review was that RF EME exposure does not impact cognitive performance in human experimental studies. This systematic review is the most comprehensive that has been published on this topic as it considered all cognitive domains and people of all ages. Other recent reviews and meta-analyses have had similar outcomes (Valentini et al, 2010; Barth et al ,2011; Zubko et al, 2017) reporting no impact of mobile phone frequencies on short term cognitive performance. However, these studies only examined a few cognitive domains including, attention, processing speed and working memory. Further, these reviews did not assess the quality or risk of bias of their included studies in the same manner as this systematic review. For example, Barth et al (2011) performed no quality assessment; Valentini et al (2010) used a simple assessment that assessed the blinding, participant selection, exposure assessment and statistics used. Zubko et al (2017) did use the risk of bias tool developed by OHAT, however, it did not assess the certainty of the evidence according to the GRADE approach.

This review is part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ongoing project assessing the health effects of RF-EMF. ARPANSA is supporting this WHO review process. One of the WHO systematic reviews has examined the long-term impacts on cognition of RF EME exposure (Benke et al 2024). This review was conducted in Australia and was co-led by ARPANSA scientists. This systematic review also reported that RF EME had no consistent impact on cognition.

Overall, the results from this systematic review are consistent with previous research and ARPANSA’s scientific understanding that exposure to RF EME below the limits in the ARPANSA RF safety standard do not cause health impacts, including cognitive outcomes.

Extracting feedback on new dental code

2 September 2024

Stakeholder comments are being sought for an updated radiation protection code related to dental exposures.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Agency (ARPANSA) is updating the Code of Practice and Safety Guide for Radiation Protection in Dentistry (2005) to ensure it remains consistent with international best practice. The code’s purpose is to set out the national requirements for the protection of patients and workers exposed to radiation used in dentistry.

Public consultation on the draft code is open from Monday 2 September to Monday 12 October 2024. The new document will be called the Code of Practice for Radiation Protection in Dentistry. It is intended that the code will be supplemented with an updated safety guide in the future.

ARPANSA’s code is based on the International Commission on Radiation Protection’s (ICRP) principles and exposure limits. They are regarded as the preeminent international radiation protection authority, and their publications help inform our national regulations governing the exposure of radiation workers and the public.

The code will represent an agreed position for the Australian State and Territory regulators and practitioners to adopt when their requirements are updated.

ARPANSA is particularly interested in feedback from dental practitioners and regulators but also from the wider community.

You can read the draft updated code at our consultation hub.

Submissions close 11.59pm 12 October 2024. Have your say by visiting the ARPANSA Consultation Hub for more information.

WHO review finds no link between mobile phone use and brain cancer

4 September 2024

A World Health Organization commissioned systematic review into the potential health effects from radio wave exposure finds no association between mobile phone use and head cancers.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency’s (ARPANSA) A/Prof Ken Karipidis, who led this review, says that it is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the evidence to date.

‘When the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radio wave exposure as a possible carcinogen to humans in 2013 it was largely based on limited evidence from human observational studies,’ A/Prof Karipidis said.

‘This systematic review of human observational studies is based on a much larger dataset compared to that examined by the IARC, that also includes more recent and more comprehensive studies, so we can be more confident that exposure to radio waves from wireless technology is not a human health hazard.’

The World Health Organization is currently preparing an Environmental Health Criterion Monograph on the health effects from radio wave exposure.

That monograph will draw on this systematic review and others commissioned by the World Health Organization.

‘Health effects from wireless technology is one of the most researched health topics,’ A/Prof Karipidis said.

‘Our review considered over 5,000 studies published between 1994 and 2022, of which 63 were included in the final analysis.

‘The findings of this systematic review align with previous research conducted by ARPANSA showing that, although the use of wireless technology has massively increased in the last 20 years, there has been no rise in the incidence of brain cancers.’

As the Australian Government’s primary radiation protection authority, ARPANSA will continue to undertake research and assess all the available scientific evidence that underpins its radio wave exposure standard and public health advice.

Read a research summary of this systematic review on our website.

Access the full journal article in Environment International.

New home for Antarctic radionuclide monitoring station

29 August 2024

Environmental monitoring scientists from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) recently travelled to Macquarie Island in the sub-Antarctic to inspect the new home of a radionuclide monitoring facility and revalidate the station.

ARPANSA cooperates with the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office to carry out Australia's radionuclide monitoring obligations to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) – an agreement ratified by Australia in 1998 that bans nuclear explosions and testing.

Treaty compliance is monitored through the installation, implementation, and operation of Australian monitoring stations spread across the country, Fiji, Kiribati and Antarctica.

ARPANSA’s Monitoring Networks Director, David Hardman, says radionuclide monitoring at Macquarie Island is important in ensuring Australia’s international obligations to the CTBT are met as the sub Antarctic stations forms an essential part of the International Monitoring System.

‘Our recent trip to the Australian Antarctic Program’s research station on Macquarie Island allowed us to work closely with our CTBT Organization colleagues in revalidating the station, making sure it meets the high standards set for the International Monitoring System.’

‘Moving our equipment into the new location with its upgraded facilities helps ensure the ongoing smooth operations of the station’, said Mr Hardman.

The global monitoring network applies several technologies to detect and ensure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected.

The radionuclide monitoring process takes place over a number of days and involves collecting particulate matter from the air onto a filter which is compressed into a disc for analysis and storage.

The data collected from the sample is forwarded by satellite to the International Data Centre in Vienna where it is processed and distributed to the CTBT Organization’s Member States.

To learn more about the CTBT program and ARPANSAs involvement with the Treaty, visit https://www.arpansa.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/international-collaboration/ctbt

Occupational exposure to ionising radiation is associated with the risk of thyroid cancer

Article review date

August 2024

Article publication date

July 2024

Summary

This meta-analysis of cohort studiesevaluated the current evidence on the association between occupational exposure to ionising radiation and risk of thyroid cancer. A total of six studies published between 2006 and 2021, which had a total of 420,543 participants, 6,322 cases and a mean follow-up period of 23 years, were included in the analysis. Data on radiation exposure levels (in Gray (Gy) or mSv) were available for almost all studies; whereas the information on thyroid cancer was largely based on clinical (i.e., histopathological) diagnosis except two studies which had self-reported diagnosis. The associations between ionising radiation exposure (i.e., personal or estimated thyroid doses) and thyroid cancer were examined in terms of risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Quality assessment of the included studies was also conducted according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The results showed that the five included studies had reported the occupational radiation exposure doses (individual doses or estimated thyroid doses), which ranged from 10.4 to 500 mGy or <0.20 to 7.2 mSv. Occupational radiation exposure was associated with the risk of thyroid cancer (RR=1.61, 95% CI: 1.27‑2.04). Sex-wise sensitivity analysis further showed that males with the history of occupational radiation exposure (compared to females) tend to be at a slightly higher risk of developing thyroid cancer (RR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.61‑1.87 vs. RR=1.30, 95% CI: 1.15‑1.48). Overall, the evidence from the meta-analysis indicates that occupational exposure to ionising radiation was associated with the risk of thyroid cancer.

Published in

Oncology Letters

Link to study

Occupational radiation exposure and risk of thyroid cancer: A meta‑analysis of cohort studies

Commentary by ARPANSA

The meta-analysis provides the latest risk estimate of thyroid cancer risk among occupationally exposed human populations to ionising radiation. These findings are consistent with those of a previous pooled analysis of seven studies (Ron et al, 1995); however, contrary to those reported in a previous case-control study (Fincham et al, 2000). Similarly, the findings that males tend to have higher risk of developing thyroid cancer is contrary to the findings of a latest study (Khoramian et al., 2024) reporting higher thyroid cancer risk among females (compared to males) undergoing head CT imaging. No similar data are available to compare these findings in the Australian context. A key limitation of the current meta-analysis is that the available data in the included studies did not allow a detailed subgroup analysis of the occupation type, dose‑effect and time‑effect relationship. Further, the meta-analysis doesn't provide any information on the exposure contrast, so it is difficult to determine whether the exposure metrics that were used in the meta-analysis from the different studies were appropriate. Though quality of a majority of the included studies in the meta-analysis was high, they had a considerable heterogeneity (I²=84%) resulting in between-study variance.

In Australia, The Code for Radiation Protection in Planned Exposure Situations sets out the requirements for the protection of occupationally exposed persons in all planned exposure situations. All Australian jurisdictions have uniform annual limits (20 mSv) for occupational exposure to ionising radiation. In addition to the dose limits, optimisation of radiation protection and safety involves practising ‘as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) considering economic and societal factors.

Health appeals versus appearance appeals in sun protection messaging

Article review date

August 2024

Article publication date

July 2024

ARPANSA summary

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of public health messaging in relation to sun protection when using appearance-based or health-based messages. The study recruited 95 participants (aged 17-24 years) who first completed a questionnaire on their sun protection behaviour and knowledge. The participants were then shown one of six possible text messages and their sun protection intentions were evaluated. Each of the six text messages tried a different strategy to appeal to the study participants. The messages either contained information on melanoma health risk, methods of sun protection, the cosmetic consequences of surgical melanoma removal or a combination thereof. The results showed that none of the messages affected the sun protection intentions of the participants compared to a control message indicating no significant difference between any of the interventions. Outside of the intervention evaluations, the survey found a gender-gap in sunbathing behaviour where 26% of male participants sunbathed compared to 60% of female participants.

Link to study

Sun safety in young Queensland adults: behaviours, knowledge, and responses to health-based and appearance-based text messages

Published in

Australian Psychologist

ARPANSA commentary

Ongoing sun protection campaigns in Australia like SunSmart continue to seek to improve the efficacy of their messaging, ultimately with the goal of reducing adverse health outcomes related to sun overexposure. Recent studies (Persson, S. et al., 2018; Mahler, H. 2015; Cheng, J. et al. 2018) have indicated that appealing to concerns about appearance may be more effective than appealing to concerns about health risk and this direction has been partially adopted by some newer sun protection campaigns.

The present study did not add significantly to this discussion as neither the health-based nor appearance-based messages had an effect compared to the control. The use of a single intra-survey text message to deliver the intervention and the absence of follow-up behaviour evaluations were highlighted as major limitations that contributed to the ineffectiveness shown. The authors also identified several other limitations with their study including low statistical power for the number of conditions that were tested and a gender imbalance among the study participants. It should also be noted that the appearance-based messaging in the study focused on surgical scarring from melanoma excisions, whereas other studies have focused primarily on skin photo-aging. This difference, although subtle, is significant as photo-aging is a much more deterministic outcome compared to melanoma and related treatments.

Whenever the UV-index is over three, ARPANSA recommends protecting yourself from the sun by following the five sun protection principles. More information about the risks of sun exposure and methods of sun protection can be found from: The World Health Organization, The Cancer Council of Australia and SunSmart websites.

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