Applicability of radiological protection concepts to evaluating the environmental impact of chemicals

The report summarizes the principal concepts of radiological protection for investigating their applicability to evaluating the environmental hazard emanating from chemicals. It is shown that, especially with regard to the protection of the environment, application of these principles in general is not suitable, but some concepts can be applied and are explained to be the following: (1) Determination and application of conversion factors (equivalents) for chemicals and radiation in case of similarity of effects (mutagenic effect, sometimes carcinogenic effect). (2) Application of reference systems (e.g. reference man, reference ecosystems, sensitive species, critical populations) for assessment of exposure and effective potentials. (3) Models and methods for risk assessment and exposure limits (weighting of effects, optimisation requirement). (4) Hazard assessment by comparison with natural exposure and effects. (orig./HP)