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Collectively, Americans now receive more than twice as much radiation each year as in the 1980s. That's according to a new tally by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. Of course, the operant word here is collectively. NCRP isn't saying every individual is getting twice as big an annual radiation dose, only that if you sum up doses to the entire population each year, that big figure has doubled and more over the past two decades or so. A burgeoning population accounts for 30 percent of the increase, notes Ken Kase, who chaired the NCRP panel that prepared the report. The rest of the increase stems largely from an increase in medical procedures that rely on radiation - from conventional diagnostic X-rays and CT scans to radiotherapy for cancer. Kase, a semi-retired health physicist and senior vice president of NCRP, describes his team's findings in a Q&A appearing in the May Health Physics News.

"Richard Toohey of Oak Ridge Associated Universities has been confirmed as a member of the board of directors of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. The NRCP advises the government on radiation protection and related issues. He has been a member of the council since 2006. In a statement, Toohey said, "As great an honor as it was to be elected to the NCRP, it is even more of an honor to be nominated to the NCRP's board of directors." Toohey currently is ORAU's acting vice president for university partnerships. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cincinnati. In 2008-09, he served as president of the Health Physics Society."