Study on the radiation detriment

Abstract

Abstract Cancer incidence risks, lifetime effects and radiation detriments are determined for the whole population and various subpopulations as a result of acute and chronic exposure to low-LET radiation, taking into account the risk models, procedures and representative populations provided by ICRP. The results are given for solid cancers in different organs, as well as for soft tissue cancer in bone marrow. For most cancer sites a good agreement is obtained between the results of this study and the values published by the ICRP. The agreement with ICRP values is better for the whole population than for the working age population, where the results are systematically elevated. For chronic exposure, the years of life lost per radiation-induced cancer incidence are generally higher. In particular, this results in a radiation detriment for the whole population that is 30% higher than for acute exposure. The study reveals that risk quantities show a pronounced age dependence. The highest radiation risks are attributed to young persons; the lowest to persons in advanced ages. The total detriment imposed on people in different ages varies by a factor of about 30. The average values provided by the ICRP mask these variations and considerably underestimate radiation risks in childhood and adolescence. This also concerns the determination of the effective dose for persons in these age groups. Unlike the ICRP, which provides different nominal detriments for the whole population and the working age population, the results of this study do not support the use of different detriments for these populations.