BEIR-III report and the health effects of low-level radiation
The present BEIR-III Committee has not highlighted any controversy over the health effects of low-level radiation. In its evaluation of the experimental data and epidemiological surveys, the Committee has carefully reviewed and assessed the value of all the available scientific evidence for estimating numerical risk coefficients for the health hazards to human populations exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation. Responsible public awareness of the possible health effects of ionizing radiations from medical and industrial radiation exposure, centers on three important matters of societal concern: (1) to place into perspective the extent of harm to the health of man and his descendants to be expected in the present and in the future from those societal activities involving ionizing radiation; (2) to develop quantitative indices of harm based on dose-effect relationships; such indices could then be used with prudent caution to introduce concepts of the regulation of population doses on the basis of somatic and genetic risks; and (3) to identify the magnitude and extent of radiation activities which could cause harm, to assess their relative significance, and to provide a framework for recommendations on how to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure to human populations. The main difference of the BEIR Committee Report is not so much from new data or new interpretations of existing data, but rather from a philosophical approach and appraisal of existing and future radiation protection resulting from an atmosphere of constantly changing societal conditions and public attitudes. (PCS)
- Research Organization:
- California Univ., Berkeley (USA). Lawrence Berkeley Lab.; California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Dept. of Radiology
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5638158
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-10383; CONF-800111-2; TRN: 80-005329
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, CA, USA, 4 Jan 1980
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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