Overview of ICRP Committee 2 ‘Doses from Radiation Exposure’

Over many years, Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has provided sets of dose coefficients to allow users to evaluate equivalent and effective doses for intakes of radionuclides or exposure to external radiation for comparison with dose limits, constraints, and reference levels as recommended by ICRP. Following the 2007 Recommendations, Committee 2 and its task groups are engaged in a substantial programme of work to provide new dose coefficients for various conditions of radiation exposure. The methodology being applied in the calculation of doses can be regarded as state-of-the-art in terms of the biokinetic models used to describe the behaviour of inhaled and ingested radionuclides, and the dosimetric models used to model radiation transport for external and internal exposures. The level of sophistication of these models is greater than required for calculation of the protection quantities with their inherent simplifications and approximations, which were introduced necessarily, for example by the use of radiation and tissue weighting factors. However, ICRP is at the forefront of developments in this area, and its models are used for scientific as well as protection purposes. This overview provides an outline of recent work and future plans, including publications on dose coefficients for adults, children, and in-utero exposures, with new dosimetric phantoms in each case. The Committee has also recently finished a report on radiation exposures of astronauts in space, and is working with members of the other ICRP committees on the development of advice on the use of effective dose.