About organizational and methodological principles and criteria for establishing the cause of diseases, disability and death with radiation exposure

Automatic translation: Over the fifteen-year period of activity of interdepartmental expert councils (MES) to establish the causal relationship of diseases, disability and death with exposure to radiation factors, attempts have been made repeatedly to use unified methodological approaches to solving expert issues. The accumulated experience of expert work and the analysis of the results of the examination of the causal relationship of deteriorating health with radiation exposure allows us to conclude that it is inexpedient to develop a list of diseases caused by exposure to ionizing radiation. The presence of a list of diseases initiated by radiation exposure, approved at any level, presupposes a positive solution to expert questions unconditionally, if the diagnosed disease is included in the list. Comparison of indicators for establishing the causal relationship of diseases, disability and death with radiation exposure on average for all MES for the periods 1991-1998 and 1999-2004. indicates a higher level of scientific substantiation of the decisions made in the second period, when the MES were guided by the direct action of the Law of the Russian Federation ''On social protection of citizens exposed to radiation due to the Chernobyl disaster'', not mediated by by-laws in the form of approved lists of diseases, as it had place in the first period.