Radiation, cancer risk, and the new dosimetry and ICRP inaction

Dr Russell Jones has claimed (Nov. 14, p. 1143) that the new dosimetry of Japanese bomb survivors increases the cancer risk of exposure to ionising radiation by large factors - in terms of absolute risk 6-fold for leukaemia and 15-fold for all other cancers, as compared with the estimates used by the International Commisssion on Radiological Protection (ICRP). He, like Mr Tucker (Feb. 6, p. 309), criticises ICRP for not immediately tightening its recommendations on radiological protection. Russell Jones' results are now compared and discussed by the present author with the observations on absolute risks according to the new dosimetry (lately published by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation [RERF]) and using the ICRP conventions, the linear hypothesis, and absorbed dose in tissue or organ. No value for annual risk of death from cancer per unit γ ray dose in tissue changes by more than one-third. (author)