Applicability of ambient dose equivalent H*(d) in mixed radiation fields - a critical discussion

For purposes of routine radiation protection, it is desirable to characterize the potential irradiation of individuals in terms of a single dose equivalent quantity that would exist in a phantom approximating the human body. The phantom of choice is the ICRU sphere made of 30 cm diameter tissue-equivalent plastic with a density of 1 g.cm-3 and a mass composition of 76.2 % O, 11.1 % C, 10.1 % H and 2.6 % N. Ambient dose equivalent, H*(d), was defined in ICRU report 51 as the dose equivalent that would be produced by an expanded and aligned radiation field at a depth d in the ICRU sphere. The recommended reference depths are 10 mm for strongly penetrating radiation and 0.07 mm for weakly penetrating radiation, respectively. As an operational quantity in radiation protection, H*(d) shall serve as a conservative and directly measurable estimate of protection quantities, e.g. effective dose E, which in turn are intended to give an indication of the risk associated with radiation exposure. The situation attains increased complexity in radiation environments being composed of a variety of charged and uncharged particles in a broad energetic spectrum. Radiation fields of similarly complex nature are, for example, encountered onboard aircraft and in space. Dose equivalent was assessed as a function of depth in quasi tissue-equivalent spheres by means of thermoluminescent dosemeters evaluated according to the high-temperature ratio (HTR) method. The presented experiments were performed both onboard aircraft and the Russian space station Mir. As a result of interaction processes within the phantom body, the incident primary spectrum may be significantly modified with increasing depth. For the radiation field at aviation altitudes we found the maximum of dose equivalent in a depth of 60 mm which conflicts with the 10 mm value recommended by ICRU. Contrary, for the space radiation environment the maximum dose equivalent was found at the surface of the sphere. This suggests that skin dose equivalent may well be used as a conservative estimate for the whole body effective dose. The intention of ICRU in introducing H*(d) was that this quantity should be suitable for metrology, and be unified, i.e. the same for all radiation fields. As was demonstrated by our experiments, this demand can only be satisfied for radiation fields encountered in terrestrial standard dosimetry, but it will certainly fail for complexly mixed fields. It therefore has to be discussed to substitute the philosophy of ambient dose equivalent by a new concept that could be based on microdosimetric principles, offering the unique potential of a more direct correlation with radiobiological parameters. (author)