The Role of the Theory of Dual Radiation Action in Radiation Protection

Abstract

Radiation protection is a very complex subject and the development of an adequate system of radiation protection involves many problems including basic philisophy, concepts, quantities and units, measurement, administrative aspects, and many others. However, the fundamental question that needs to be answered before any of these problems are dealt with concerns the nature and the magnitude of the risk to human populations exposed to ionizing radiation. This is a matter on which there is still a considerable amount of controversy and no doubt this is at least in a large measure due to inadequate information. It is a very difficult problem which almost by definition cannot be solved on the basis of studies of irradiated human populations. There are a variety of such populations which have received a broad range of doses with the evident trend of a decreasing frequency of detrimental effects with decreasing dose. However, it is invariably postulated that the probability of any harmful effects that can be induced by maximum permissible doses must at most be very small. Consequently, doses which cause even moderately discernible effects are likely to be larger than those that are considered acceptable in radiation protection.