IRPA is the international association for radiation protection professionals. The theme of the congress was ‘Encouraging Collaboration in Radiation Protection’, with talks and workshops covering a range of disciplines such as radiation protection in higher education, healthcare, and the nuclear industry.
Rae delivered a presentation titled ‘An investigation into radioactive needlestick injuries’ as part of IRPA’s Young Scientists and Professionals Award. The presentation was a summary of an initial pilot study and preliminary findings on the volume deposition in needlestick injuries, using pigs’ skin as a human analogue. This is an active research area in radiation protection as there is not a standard approach for dose estimations from radioactive needlestick injuries. This work hopes to provide further information to improve calculation methods. This work demonstrates how valuable collaboration - in this case between academics in ARAMP and Health and Safety professionals like Ollie and Rae - can be in improving our understanding of radiation risks.