[The DARI. A unit of measurement adapted to the assessment of the effect of low-dose radiation].
A clearer understanding by a wider public of the health effects of radioactive materials arising in the nuclear industry is essential if the public interest is to served. Clear and continuous information provided to the public about radiation dose from industry is inadequate to an intuitive and correct understanding of relative risk in part because radiation exposure is expressed in units that non-specialists find difficult to comprehend. We propose the establishment of a unit of irradiation dose to the individual that is equal to that provided to a human being by the naturally occurring radioactivity of human tissue: the "Dari" from the French for "Dose Annuelle due aux Radiations Internes" annual dose from internal radioactivity. To the extent of 90%, this radiation is due to potassium 40, of mean life 1.3 billion years, that was present in the cosmic dust from which the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. The DARI amounts to less than 10% of the natural radiation to which the body is subject, arising from external irradiation from rocks and from cosmic rays. The use of this unit for expressing the individual's radiation dose from an incident or an accident involving radioactive materials would facilitate a proper judgment of its impact, and would avoid unwarranted concerns.
Charpak
G
G
National Academy of Sciences 210, Constitution Avenue Washington, DC 20418, USA.
Garwin
R
R
D006801:Humans; D011829:Radiation Dosage