The committee dedicates this volume to the memory of
Alice Mary Stewart, the first scientist to establish the health effects of
exposure to low dose radiation. Professor Stewart agreed to be the first
Chair of the European Committee on Radiation Risk. Sadly, she did not live
to see this first report completed.
This first report of the European Committee on Radiation Risk
is intended for regulators and those who have to make decisions about the
health effects of radioactive releases. It presents a rational model for
calculating the health risks of exposure to ionising radiation. Unlike the
existing framework of modelling radiation risk, the ECRR model uses evidence
from the most recent research, from new discoveries in radiation biology and
from human epidemiology to create a system of calculation which gives results
which are in agreement both with the mechanism of radiation action at the
level of the living cell and observation of disease in exposed population.
There is increasing concern over the dissonance between the modelling of
health outcomes of radioactive releases to the environment and the
observations. In this volume the committee explains how the present risk model
came to be universally used and points out its shortcomings. In addition the
committee addresses the ethical basis of releasing radioactive materials to
the environment.
The volume is essential reading for anyone involved in legislation in this
area and should also be of interest to members of the public who need to
estimate the effects of nuclear discharges.
