Summaries of articles in this issue

Abstract

Radiation doses to the embryo and foetus from intakes of radionuclides by the mother J W Stather et al (7–24) Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) provides radiation doses from intakes of radionuclides for all age groups in the population and for workers who are occupationally exposed. Publication 88 of ICRP, which has recently been published, gives dose coefficients to the offspring (embryo, foetus and newborn child) for intakes of radionuclides by the mother either before or during pregnancy. The approaches used by ICRP in the development of the biokinetic and dosimetric models used for the calculation of these dose coefficients are summarised in the paper, together with a comparison of the doses to the offspring with those to the reference adult. In general, doses to the offspring are similar to or less than those to the adult. For a few radionuclides, however, the dose to the offspring can exceed that to the adult. The reasons for these differences are considered in the paper.