The Use of Effective Dose as a Radiological Protection Quantity


Draft document: The Use of Effective Dose as a Radiological Protection Quantity
Submitted by Joachim Breckow, German Commission on Radiological Protection
Commenting as an individual

One general comment:

At several parts within the document (e.g. page 9, 12, 24) there are expressions in terms of "risk per Gy", "risk per Sv", "effectiveness per Gy" etc. (similar to what has been used in preceding ICRP-publications). Somewhat misleading, this kind of expressions obviously are "mixed" terms of quantities and units. A proper definition, however, should consist purely of quantities or, respectively, a combination of quantities, given in appropriate units (an analogue "mixed" term would be "the mass density is defined as the mass per m³ " rather than "mass per volume given in units kg per m³.")

In this case these terms should be denoted as "risk per absorbed dose", "risk per effective dose" etc. (with units Gy-1 or Sv-1).

At other parts of the document similar expressions are given (more accurately) as "risk per unit dose" (e. g. page 16). In an extremely accurate way (too accurately?) one could argue that this is a "mixed" expression as well, because one has not to divide by a unit dose (not a unit), but by a dose (a quantity). A dose, such as any quantity, always is the product of a number and a unit.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
















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