Radiation quality and radiation protection: implications of changes in quality factors

The implications for radiological protection practices of some proposed changes in quality factors are examined. These proposals encompass increases in the quality factors for high LET radiations by factors of between 3 and 10, and for 250 keV X rays relative to cobalt-60 gamma rays by factors of between 1.5 and 2.7. Since such proposals would seem to have the objective of achieving an ''equality of risk'', the examination compares the effect of the changes in effective dose equivalent with the quantities measured by personal dosemeters and used for exposure control and dose records. (author)