Abstract
The hazards of exposure to some types of ionising radiation were recognized shortly after the discovery of the X-ray in 1895: by 1902 the first radiation-associated cancer was reported in a skin sore and, within a few years, a large number of such skin cancers had been observed. The first report of leukaemia in radiation workers appeared in 1911. Since then there have been many reviews of the health effects of ionising radiation, most notably in the reports of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) (see, for example, UNSCEAR, 2006). The International Agency for Research on Cancer's Monographs on the Carcinogenic Risk to Humans also reviewed the effects of ionising radiation, both in the form of exposure to external γ or X-rays (IARC, 2000) and as α and β particles from internalised radionuclides (IARC, 2001), and all these types of radiation were classified as carcinogenic to humans.
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