The Health Protection Agency (HPA) today published the UK's first recovery handbook for radiation incidents. The handbook has been developed to guide UK decision-makers through a menu of recovery options following a release of radioactive material into the environment.

It will help users identify the key issues and evaluate a range of timely, effective actions and countermeasures so that they choose the options most suited to their particular circumstances.

The handbook has two main purposes:

-- to help those organisations that would be part of the Recovery Working Group (RWG) to plan their response to an incident involving the release of radioactive material into the environment;

-- to aid the RWG in making decisions on recovery options in the first few months after such an incident.

There are two major considerations following an accident or incident involving radioactive contamination: protection of health and the safety of foodstuffs. The spread of contamination creates a complex situation, affecting health, agriculture, economics and involving most sectors of the population. A coherent framework for the restoration of safe living conditions in contaminated areas is therefore essential.

The main focus of the handbook is to give guidance on dealing with an accidental release from a nuclear site or weapons' transport accident. However, much of the guidance may also be relevant to other types of radiation incident.

Welcoming the publication of the handbook, Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency said: "This is the first comprehensive, authoritative handbook of this type to be available to the UK's recovery teams. I am confident that it will prove an invaluable aid to planning and that it will quickly become a vital part of the recovery toolkit."

1 The preparation of this Handbook was jointly funded by the Radiation Protection Division of the Health Protection Agency (formerly NRPB), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Environment (Northern Ireland), Environment Agency, Food Standards Agency, Scottish Executive and Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

2 The RWG is a multi-agency group that consists of representatives of both local and central Government bodies that would be set up after an emergency as soon as it became clear that offsite contamination was going to occur.

3 The Handbook is divided into colour coded sections, each representing a different topic area as follows - the order of these sections is arbitrary and does not indicate which topic should be addressed first:
Yellow - Recovery and Radiation Protection
Green - Agricultural food production
Orange - Domestic food production and the gathering of free foods
Purple - Inhabited areas
Blue - Drinking water

4 UK Recovery Handbook for Radiation Incidents: 2005. HPA-RPD-002. (ISBN 0-85951-559-1).

The Recovery Handbook is approximately 500 pages long and is available in PDF, hard copy and interactive (HTML on a CD) formats. Available at www.hpa/radiation/, printed copy, £50 +10% postage and packing, interactive (HTML) CD, £11, from CRCE Information Office, (Tel: 01235 822742/822603), email: informationhpa-rp.

5 Press Enquiries only: Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental Hazards Press Office, Chilton (Tel: 01235 822744/822745)

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