1 The Role of the Health Physics Society in the 21st Century

As the Health Physics Society approaches the 21st century, it is time to evaluate the changing role of radiation safety in the United States. Clearly the Society has changed since its formation in 1956. Early members of the Society were mostly concerned with understanding the biological effects of radiation and establishing programs for controlling radiation exposures. Today, relatively few of the Society’s members are engaged in academic or research functions, or development of radiation safety standards. The largest proportion of members is involved in the implementation of radiation safety programs. These programs also do not typically require the technical judgment of safety programs in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 21st century, most radiation safety functions will be highly prescriptive. The role of the specialist in radiation safety will be to carefully implement the established requirements. Several past presidents of the Society have met with the Executive Committee at a special retreat to consider, “Who are we, whom do we represent, and whom would we like to represent. ” This retreat determined that there are over 25,000 radioactive material licenses issued in the United States. Each of these licenses requires a responsible manager, known as a Radiation Safety Officer (RSO). We estimate that there are about 20,000 RSOs in the U.S. The current HPS membership of about 6,000 represents only a small fraction of the persons responsible for radiation safety in the U.S. In fact, relatively few RSO’s would call themselves health physicists, or even know the meanin