This book is the seventh in a series of titles from the National Research Council that addresses the effects of exposure to low dose LET (Linear Energy Transfer) ionizing radiation and human health. Updating information previously presented in the 1990 publication, Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR V, this book draws upon new data in both epidemiologic and experimental research. Ionizing radiation arises from both natural and man-made sources and at very high doses can produce damaging effects in human tissue that can be evident within days after exposure. However, it is the low-dose exposures that are the focus of this book. So-called “late” effects, such as cancer, are produced many years after the initial exposure. This book is among the first of its kind to include detailed risk estimates for cancer incidence in addition to cancer mortality. BEIR VII offers a full review of the available biological, biophysical, and epidemiological literature since the last BEIR report on the subject and develops the most up-to-date and comprehensive risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-level ionizing radiation.

NCRP Report No. 116 is the latest in the long series of reports on basic radiation protection criteria that began in 1934. It supersedes the predecessor in the series, NCRP Report No. 91, which was published in 1987. The current Report takes advantage of new information, evaluations and thinking that have developed since 1987, particularly the risk estimate formulations set out in NCRP Report No. 115. While the recommendations set out in this Report do not constitute a radical revision of the basic criteria, they do represent a refinement of the system enunciated in Report No. 91. Important changes include the utilization of revised tissue/organ weighting factors and the introduction of radiation weighting factors. Also noteworthy is the introduction of an allowable reference level of intake. Noteworthy too is the recommendation of an age-based lifetime limit for control of occupational exposures and a major simplification of limits aimed at controlling the exposure of the embryo and fetus. This Report, after outlining the goals and philosophy of radiation protection and the basis for exposure limits, goes on to review, in some detail, absorbed dose, equivalent dose, radiation weighting factors, and effective dose. Committed equivalent dose and committed effective dose are also introduced. Risk estimates for radiation exposure are presented and then the dose limits are enunciated. The Report also covers exposure in excess of the limits, limits for unusual occupational situations, guidance for emergency occupational exposure, and remedial action levels for naturally occurring radiation.