Svenja Schulze, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and Prof. Dr. Joachim Breckow, physicist at the TH Mittelhessen. Breckow is chairman of the German Radiation Protection Commission, which provides scientific advice to the ministry.

The chairman used the first meeting with the minister, who has been in office since March, to explain the structures and working methods of the committee. The current topic was the practical implementation of the new Radiation Protection Act, which will come into force at the end of this year.
The law expands radiation protection to areas for which there were previously no or insufficient regulations. "The focus is increasingly shifting from radiation from artificial radioactivity to areas such as lasers, ultraviolet radiation or radiation from electromobility," explains Breckow. As a practical example, the scientist cites the cosmetic use of radiation outside of medicine, such as the removal of tattoos by laser. UV exposure in solariums or natural radiation from radon also came increasingly into focus.

The Radiation Protection Commission advises the Ministry on all questions relating to the danger to people from radiation. This applies to radioactive substances, X-rays, but also exposure to mobile communications or high-voltage lines.
Joachim Breckow has been teaching physics and radiation protection at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Computer Science in Gießen since 1997. He is the managing director of the Institute for Medical Physics and Radiation Protection. The university lecturer was a member of the Radiation Protection Commission from 1998 to 2004 and has been a member again since 2012, and has been its chairman since 2016.