Deterministic Effects Threshold Doses

[eh_carbaugh@ccmail.pnl.gov (Eugene H Carbaugh)]

     The most convenient compilation I have found of threshold doses for 
     deterministic effects is in ICRP Publication 41, "Nonstochastic 
     Effects of Ionizing Radiation.  Table 5 (on page 25) which is taken 
     from a 1972 publication by Rubin and Casarett. 
     
     That table shows the lowest dose threshold for effect in only 1-5% of 
     patients as fetal death (2 Gy) and bone marrow hypoplasia (2 Gy). 
     Increasing the frequency to 25-50% of the patients raises the 
     threshold dose to 4.5 and 5.5 Sv, respectively.
     
     I haven't heard of 50 mSv as a deterministic effects threshold dose 
     for any specific effect.  I have heard that cytogenetic studies have 
     be capable of detecting doses on the order of 150-250 mSv, but the 
     confidence at those levels has been low.  I am not sure I would 
     consider chromosome abberations a deterministic effect - by the basic 
     definition of the effect, I would think it falls in the stochastic 
     category.
     
     Gene Carbaugh
     Internal Dosimetry
     Pacific Northwest National Laboratoy
     eh_carbaugh@pnl.gov