The State of the Art of the World Radioprotection System

Abstract

Ionizing radiation can expose individuals, and this exposure may cause deleterious biological effects. Protection against these effects, called radioprotection is accomplished through actions at the source, on the exposure routes and on the individual. It is assumed a proportional relationship between increased exposure and increased risk of stochastic effects of exposure. This approach allows dividing the network events and exposure situations and evaluating steps which are important for radioprotection. The aim of this study is to evaluate the state of the art radiation protection recommendations published by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). For operational reasons, the radioprotection needs to perform simplifications in the relations between sources and biological effects. The last simplification was made in 2007, dividing the relations according to the sources and individuals. The principles of radioprotection (justification, dose limitation and optimization) were maintained and strengthened. The ratio depending on the source allowed the inclusion in the sources of regulatory framework previously not included and definitions of dose constraint concepts and reference levels. All this, when used with the principle of optimization of radiation protection can restrict individual doses. The maintenance of the three radiation protection principles demonstrates the robustness of these principles, as well as the maintenance of the dose limits demonstrates the confidence of the radioprotection community in the safety of these limits. Brazilian radioprotection did not reach yet the state of the art described here and is still based on ICRP previous recommendation edited in 1990, but being the legal regulations for Brazil they must be obeyed. All legislation based on ICRP No 60 and subsequent recommendations are able to protect quite adequately the environment and workers, although they are not in the state of the art as defined by the ICRP No 103 and subsequent recommendations.