Bonn Call For Action Seeks to Improve Radiation Protection in Medicine

March 20, 2015—The US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health has made available online the Bonn Call For Action, which is a joint position statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) identifying responsibilities and proposing priorities for stakeholders regarding radiation protection in medicine for the next decade.

As noted in the document, the statement is an outcome of IAEA’s International Conference on Radiation Protection in Medicine: Setting the Scene for the Next Decade conference in Bonn, Germany, in December 2012. The meeting’s purpose was identifying and addressing issues arising in radiation protection in medicine. The WHO cosponsored the conference, which was hosted by the government of Germany through the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety and was attended by 536 participants and observers from 77 countries and 16 organizations. 

The aims of the Bonn Call For Action are to strengthen the radiation protection of patients and health workers overall, attain the highest benefit with the least possible risk to all patients by the safe and appropriate use of ionizing radiation in medicine, aid the full integration of radiation protection into health care systems, help improve the benefit/risk dialogue with patients and the public, and enhance the safety and quality of radiological procedures in medicine.

The Bonn Call For Action highlights ten main actions and related subactions that were identified as being essential for the strengthening of radiation protection in medicine over the next decade.

The main actions are:

1. Enhance the implementation of the principle of justification
2. Enhance the implementation of the principle of optimization of protection and safety
3. Strengthen manufacturers’ role in contributing to the overall safety regime
4. Strengthen radiation protection education and training of health professionals
5. Shape and promote a strategic research agenda for radiation protection in medicine
6. Increase availability of improved global information on medical exposures and occupational exposures in medicine
7. Improve prevention of medical radiation incidents and accidents
8. Strengthen radiation safety culture in health care
9. Foster an improved radiation benefit-risk dialogue
10. Strengthen the implementation of safety requirements globally