BEIR III 'The effects on populations of exposure to low levels of ionising radiation'

Abstract

The BEIR III report became available in August 1980 after an earlier draft had been withdrawn in 1979. The BEIR committee have reviewed the state of knowledge on the interaction of radiation with biological tissue and concluded that the evidence is compatible with a wide range of interpretations. They consider the estimation of radiation risks and present a large number of tables of numerical values covering the various models which they discuss. Overall they suggest that for low linear energy transfer radiation the dose response is most realistically represented by an expression with a dose dependence which is the sum of a linear and a quadratic term. This summary of the report concentrates on the factors leading to the numerical estimates of the rate at which radiation can induce fatal malignancies.