Getting the radiation dose correct

Getting the radiation dose correct is of strategic importance for a number of interrelated actors: the manufacturers of radiation equipment and of the specialized computer software that these machines require; the physicists, radiobiologists, specialists in nuclear medicine and experts in dosimetry in the laboratory; the medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation oncologists, technicians, and health care workers in the medical clinic; and of course, the cancer patients themselves. What is at stake after all is human health. Despite the highly sophisticated medical technologies used in radiation therapy, cancer patients throughout the world continue to receive the wrong radiation doses during their personalized treatments. This project is an innovative and groundbreaking approach to address this problem. It seeks to develop new insights to guide the implementation of scientific dosimetric methods and radiation technologies by looking in a new direction. I will examine how pertinent historical, epistemological, sociotechnical, and diplomatic issues affect the design of quality assurance and dosimetry practices. The project explores a key question: what are the politics of radiation dosimetry at an international level? Research is focused on a major actor, the Dosimetry Laboratory of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which since the late 1950s has been one of the most influential players in implementing dosimetric methods worldwide and in establishing dosimetric protocols or codes of practice in radiotherapy. The main objectives of the project are to explore: a) what it meant, historically and politically, to get the radiation dose correct. This line of work will uncover the complex sociopolitical and historical explanation of IAEAs success in controlling the dissemination of standards for radiation measurements and in dominating the field of dosimetry worldwide. (History of Science and Science and Technology Studies) b) what kind of epistemological issues were raised by the use of specific technologies and by biased in favor of one of them. The authority of the IAEAs Dosimetry Laboratory allowed it to impose specific technological solutions and adopt particular types of dosimeters to meet the needs of the labs calibration services. (Philosophy of Science-Social Epistemology) By being highly interdisciplinary, this project brings together methodologies from the following three fields: a) history of science, b) social epistemology and c) science, technology and social studies. The aim is to address an issue that is practical and of vital importance, namely the determination of the correct doses in the field of radiation medicine. The main hypothesis is that although science has been perceived as mostly above politics, in the case of the IAEAs Dosimetry Laboratory science and international politics have mutually and constructively influenced each other. The results of the project will impact on everyday dosimetry practices by helping us understand how dosimetric methods are designed and how dosimetry is performed.

Getting the radiation dose correct has been truly a challenge for a number of interrelated actors and a key issue in radiation protection. An FWF Lise Meitner Research Grant (M 1727-G16) allowed a study that resulted in gaining a better understanding of the historic role played specifically by the International Atomic Energy Agency in legitimizing dosimetric methods, instruments, and lines of research, and standardizing the field worldwide. Based on extended archival and historical research this study suggests that historical, epistemological, sociotechnical, and most of all diplomatic issues related to dosimetry and calibration of radiation beams have affected the design of quality assurance and dosimetry practices. Among the most important issues that have been explored are the roles of IAEAs laboratories ina) developing a dose intercomparison service among all Member States and thus standardizing dosimetry in a global level;b) performing the Vinca experiment in order to shed light on the relationship between the exact radiation doses received and the clinical effects that were observed in an accident that took place at the Vinca Nuclear Institute near Belgrade in 1958;c) advocating the use of glove boxeswindowed, sealed containers equipped with two flexible gloves that allow the user to manipulate nuclear materials from the outside in an ostensibly safe environmentby IAEA researchers in order to detect illicit uranium enrichment activity in a safe environment.