A new European cancer risk assessment tool for application after nuclear accidents

Abstract

The development and application of new European software for cancer risk assessment after radiation exposure from a nuclear accident is described here. This software computes lifetime risks for several types of cancer and is intended to provide information for consideration by decision makers in the urgent and transition phases of nuclear emergencies. Such information on radiation related cancer risks can be useful to consider in the identification of protective measures (e.g., sheltering, evacuation, allocation of individuals to screening programmes and advice to take thyroid protection medication) in a differential way (i.e., for particularly susceptible sub-groups of a population). A description and application of the software for converting dose limits applicable after nuclear accidents into corresponding cancer risks, based on German population data, has already been published. Therefore, only a brief description of the main features of the software and some new illustrative results based on Swiss population data are given here, with some additional information on the input and output specification of the software.