Population exposure to ionising radiation: dose magnitude and basic radiation protection principles

Abstract

The paper presents major sources of population exposure to ionizing radiation and the magnitude and distribution among various sources. Natural radiation sources are part of human environment. Due to external exposure from space radiation, external exposure from terrestrial radiation, internal exposure from inhalation of radon and thoron and their progeny and due to internal exposure from radionuclides in the body, as a global average, the natural background radiation is 2.4 mSv per year. Apart from natural radiation, nuclear and isotopic techniques represent a wide range of human activities, and for more than a century have very important applications in various areas of life. A brief overview of these methods used in agriculture, industry, science and research, archaeology, history and medicine and their radiation impact will be provided. Parallel to expansion of radiation application, the concerns related to health effects of ionizing radiation have been raised. The scientific discipline called radiation protection has an aim to protect people and environment form excessive and unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation. There are three basic principles in radiation protection: justification, optimisation of protection and individual dose limitations, and overview of these will be given in the paper.