International radiation protection standards

Full text: Today the recommendations of ICRP have a profound influence on radiation protection all over the world. The latest recommendations were issued as publication no 60 (ICRP 60 1991). This document elaborated a conceptual framework for radiation protection based on ethics, experimental work, and risk assessment. The justification principle prohibits practices involving additional radiation exposures unless they produce sufficient societal benefits. The three main principles of the ICRP for proposed or continuing radiation-protection practices are: 1) the justification principle; 2)the optimization principle; 3) the dose limitation principle.The optimization principle requires managers to keep radiation exposures as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA), taking into account economic and social factors. the dose-limitation principle limits exposure of individuals to radiation. The system of radiological protection recommended by CRP for intervention is based on two additional principles: the proposed intervention should do more good than harm; one should optimize the form, scale and duration of intervention. Although the ICRP does not employ the term precautionary principle it does use the concept, at least implicitly