The Use of Effective Dose as a Radiological Protection Quantity


Draft document: The Use of Effective Dose as a Radiological Protection Quantity
Submitted by Alan Fellman, NV5 Dade Moeller
Commenting on behalf of the organisation

Effective dose relies on the assumption that there is a linear non-threshold relationship betwen radiation dose and cancer risk, an assumption that has been proven to be false.  To pretend otherwise is to be disingenous; indeed, there are hundreds if not thousands of papers which support the rejection of the LNT on the cellular and organism levels, including studies of radiation workers, atomic bomb survivors, persons exposed from environmental releases, animals, bacteria, etc. It's continued use is non-science and does a disservice to society in many ways, including but not limited to adding burdensome and unnecessary regulatory costs to nuclear technologies and contributing to radiation phobia among patients and doctors.  Its use leads to inaccurate, false positive conclusions about the risk of radiation-induced cancer, despite cautions about it's use in performing quantitative risk assessments.  It is a parameter that misleads and therefore should no longer be used.














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