Editorial - Reliability (and Uncertainty) of Radionuclide Dose Coefficients
Abstract
For controlling exposures to radionuclides, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has developed a series of biokinetic and dosimetric models for calculating equivalent doses to organs and tissues(1,2). It also recommends the use of tissue weighting factors, wT to calculate effective doses that allow doses (and hence risks) from intakes of radionuclides to be compared with those from external radiation exposure. Ideally, the calculation of equivalent doses to tissues following intakes of radionuclides, by either inhalation or ingestion, will be based upon a comprehensive knowledge of their behaviour in the body and how this is affected by the physicochemical form of the intake, by the age and gender of the individual and by other factors such as diet, disease or ethnic group. In practice, the reality is that information is never complete and in the development of biokinetic models to describe the behaviour of radionuclides in the body, data will come from a number of sources. Increasingly, there is pressure to provide guidance on the confidence that can be applied to doses calculated using these models. Additionally, an understanding of the uncertainties associated with the models allows further research to be most effectively directed. The most reliable