UN Scientific Committee Concludes 69th Session VIENNA

The session was held as a hybrid meeting at the Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria from 9 to 13 May 2022. The Committee elected the Bureau for the 69th and 70th sessions: Jing Chen (Canada) as Chair; Lidia Vasconcellos de Sá (Brazil), Anssi Auvinen (Finland) and Anna Friedl (Germany) as Vice-Chairs; and Sarah Baatout (Belgium) as Rapporteur and acknowledged the work of the Bureau for the 66th to 68th sessions led by Gillian Hirth (Australia) and contribution of the outgoing Vice-Chair Jin Kyung Lee (Republic of Korea). Jing Chen (Chair) highlighted the significant progress made by the Committee since the 68th session including the publication of three annexes A, B and C of the UNSCEAR 2020/2021 Report; and the endorsed new strategy for data collection, analysis and dissemination to support the Committee’s future evaluations on medical, occupational and public exposures. The strategy aims to seek widespread participation in the Committee’s surveys, to improve regional representation in future reports on medical, occupational and public exposures to ionizing radiation, and to ensure that future Committee’s surveys are relevant and useful, and adapt to changing data sources and uses of radiation across the world. More than 180 scientists from 31 State Members of the Committee and 13 international organizations also advanced their ongoing work on second primary cancer after radiotherapy; epidemiological studies of radiation and cancer; diseases of the circulatory system from radiation exposure and on the evaluation of public exposure to ionizing radiation from natural and other sources. New evaluations and the Committee’s Future Programme of Work (2025-2029) have also been a key part of the discussions. In the margins of the 69th session, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi and UNSCEAR represented by the secretariat, Batandjieva-Metcalf signed the first memorandum of understanding on 10 May 2022 aiming to further strengthen the ongoing collaboration between the two organizations. The Scientific Committee 70th session is scheduled from 19 to 23 June 2023 in Vienna, Austria.