#IRPA14 Low-dose radiation expert receives gold medal for radiation protection

Dr Elzabeth Gilbert

The medal is presented every four years to a person who has made a “highly valuable contribution” to international radiation protection work over the preceding 10 years.

A leader in the field

Gilbert comfortably fits the bill of winner. A biostatistician, her work in radiation epidemiology at the NCI – which she joined in 1996 – has, in particular, advanced the scientific understanding of the carcinogenic effects of radiation exposures at low doses.

She has been hailed as a leader in the study of exposure to inhaled alpha emitters (radioactive materials like plutonium and radon that emit alpha particles). She has also done defining work on the statistical effects of uncertainty of doses, errors in radiation dose estimates, and their impact on the relationship of cancer risk to radiation dose. She has served on several major US and international organisations and studies.

Cancer risk from low-dosage exposure

In her short talk, Gilbert took delegates through some of the foundational studies and pooled analyses in the field. These include several studies on thyroid disease among nuclear works from the US’s Hanford Nuclear Site, and the 15-country study by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to estimate the risk of cancer death, including leukaemia, after low-level exposure to high energy photon (gamma-ray) radiation in over 400,000 nuclear industry workers in those 15 countries.

The congress brought together close on 900 delegates from 72 countries at the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) from 9 to 13 May.