CONCLUSIONS

The presentations and the discussions of the workshop highlighted the common goal of all participants to protect the workers and the environment from any risk due to NORM. The experts from health and life sciences learned from the professionals from the gas and oil industry a lot about the potential problems due to the large amounts of NORM produced during the last decades of gas and oil production. On the other hand the professionals from the industry experienced all kind of methods how to deal with the problems. The key issue is the assessment of the actual situation in terms of the amount and the distribution of NORM in the production facilities as well as in abandoned sites, disposal sites, lagoons etc. Based on this assessment strategies have to be developed how to deal with the problems. For radiation protection of the workers decisions have to be made whether site specific monitoring is appropriate or individual monitoring is needed. Where applicable, individual monitoring procedures such as film dosimetry should be optimized taking into account site specific exposure conditions. In this context it was recommended to provide special training to the workers. In general there seems to be a need to increase the awareness of the potential risks of NORM in all working areas and also in the public.