RE: comparing individual and collective doses

["George J. Vargo" <vargo@physicist.net>]

Mike,



Take a look at "Principles of Collective Dose in Radiation Protection," NCRP

Report 121, dated November 30, 1995.  In particular, look at Section 4 on

Limitations.  This section lays the groundwork for a later admonition by the

ICRP in its Publication 77, which cautions against excessive aggregation of

collective dose over time and space (Sect 5.3)  



The analogy that I like to use with respect to collective dose is that of

the optical density response of film to radiation exposure.  There are

practical, physical limits to reciprocity (i.e., 4 x 0.25 rem = 2 x 0.5 rem

being a reasonable extrapolation, while 1E+6 x 1E-6 rem does  equal to 1 x 1

rem is a completely unreasonably extrapolation.  It is also inappropriate to

integrate collective dose between generations.



Anybody else care to weight-in on this one?



George J. Vargo, Ph.D., CHP

Senior Scientist

MJW Corporation

http://www.mjwcorp.com

610-925-3377

610-925-5545 (fax)

vargo@physicist.net





-----Original Message-----

From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf Of Michael McNaughton

Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 2:31 PM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: comparing individual and collective doses





Dear RadSafers



I have often read that when applying the ALARA principle, it is important 

to consider both individual and collective dose equivalents. Is there any 

guidance on how to compare these two? For example, how would one compare n 

mrem to the most exposed individual member of the public with a collective 

dose of n rem distributed evenly among a million people?



mike

Mike McNaughton

Los Alamos National Lab.

email: mcnaught@LANL.gov or mcnaughton@LANL.gov

phone: 505-667-6130



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