Value of public health and safety actions and radiation dose avoided

Technical Report · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10167691· OSTI ID:10167691

Baum, J W ^[1]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)

The values judged best to reflect the willingness of society to pay for the avoidance or reduction of risk were deduced from studies of costs of health care, transportation safety, consumer product safety, government agency actions, wage-risk compensation, consumer behavior (market) studies, and willingness-to-pay surveys. The results ranged from $1,400,000 to $2,700,000 per life saved. Applying the mean of these values ($2,100,000) and the latest risk per unit dose coefficients used by the ICRP (1991), which take into account risks to the general public, including genetic effects and nonfatal cancers, yields a value of dose avoided of $750 to $1,500 per person-cSv for public exposures. The lower value applies if adjustments are made for years of life lost per fatality. A nominal value of $1,000 per person-cSv seems appropriate in light of the many uncertainties involved in deducing these values. These values are consistent with values recommended by several European countries for individual doses in the region of 1 mSv/y (100 mrem/y). Below this dose rate, most countries have values a factor of 7 to 10 lower, based on the assumption that society is less concerned with fatality risks below about 10{sup {minus}4}/y.

• Research Organization: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Regulatory Applications; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 10167691
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-6212; BNL-NUREG-52413; ON: TI94015399
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: May 1994
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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