............. :::) ............ .... c. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements’: (NCRP) The INCRP position is that the rational use of radiation should conform to levels of safety to users and the public which are at least as Continuing stringent as those achieved for other powerful agents. and chronic exposure attributable to peaceful uses of ionizing radiation are assumed. The hTCRP has adopted the assumption of no-threshold dose-effects guidance relationship and uses the term “dose limits” in providing All radiation exposures are to be kept on population exposures. The numerical values of exposure as pre as low as practicable. as recommendations, not regulations. ,n sented are to be interpreted , Use of the no-threshold concept involves the thesis that there is ‘~. no exposure limit free from some degree of risk. .............. . . .. TO establish criteria, liCRP uses the concept of “acceptable risk” (where the risk is compensated by a demor.strable benefit) broken down to fit classes of indi~fiduals or population groups exposed for various purposes to different quantities of radiation. Ihmerical recommendations for dose limits are necessarily arbitrary because The dose limits of their mixed teclmical value -judgement foundation. for indi\i&~al members of the public and for the average population recomm-ended by X-CRP represent a le~-el of ris’k considered to be so small compared with other hazards of life, and so well offset by perceptible benefits when used as intended, that public approbation ~~ill be achieved when the iriormed public review process is completed. . 2i-CRP pro~ides yearly numerical For peaceful uses of radiation, dose limits for indi-.tidual members of the public, considering and strongly ad~-ocates maintenance of _ possible somatic effects, lowest practicable exposure levels, especially for infants and the unborn. N:CRP also recommends yearl:: dose limits for the average population based upon somatic and genetic considerations and recommends the same value as ICRP of 5 reins in 30 years for Table III contains a gonadal exposure of the U. S. population. h’CRP Report No. 39 ensummary of recommended values. “ dated January 15, “Basic Radiation Protection Criteria, titled, 1971, contains the most recent updating of hTCRP recommendations for protection of the public. ‘;:Formerly known as the NTational and Measurements. ............... ... ... . .. .............. .. .. ....... .....- Committee 111–5 on Radiation Protection 9