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Where do radiation dose limits come from? Radiation dose limits in the UK are set to protect people who work with ionising radiation. They are based on international scientific advice and written into UK law.
Ionising radiation can cause two types of health effects:
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• Deterministic effects, such as skin burns or cataracts, only occur once a certain dose is exceeded and become more severe as dose increases.
• Stochastic effects, mainly cancer, have no known threshold and become more likely as dose increases. Because stochastic effects may occur at any dose, radiation protection assumes there is no completely safe level of exposure.
Keeping doses low
Dose limits are legal maximums, not acceptable working levels. Working below a dose limit does not automatically mean that exposure is being controlled properly.
Low Level Waste Radiation exposure in the UK must be kept
As Low As Reasonably Practicable( ALARP). This means balancing the reduction in risk against the time, effort and cost needed to achieve it.
International guidance Scientific advice on radiation protection is provided by the International Commission on Radiological Protection( ICRP). Its recommendations aim to prevent deterministic effects and to reduce the chance of stochastic effects occurring. As scientific understanding develops, recommendations change. One example is the significant reduction in dose limits for the lens of the eye in recent years.
The International Atomic Energy Agency( IAEA) uses ICRP recommendations to produce international safety standards, which many countries use as the basis for their legislation.
UK legislation and regulation In Europe, ICRP recommendations are implemented through EURATOM Basic Safety Standards. Although the UK left EURATOM in 2020, current UK legislation was written before this and reflects those standards.
UK radiation dose limits are set out in the Ionising Radiation Regulations 2017, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Compliance is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive( HSE) or the Office for Nuclear Regulation( ONR), depending on the site.
UK dose limits are therefore internationally aligned, scientifically based, and intended as absolute upper limits— with keeping exposure ALARP remaining the foundation of radiation protection at work.
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40 Radiation Protection Today www. srp-rpt. uk