The status of the seventh report in the series Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations and a revised dosimetry for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation's A-bomb studies.
Results of a National Academies workshop and feasibility study led US Governmental agencies to request the Board on Radiation Effects Research of the National Research Council to commence a risk assessment study in 1998 as the seventh report in the series Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations (BEIR VII). Originally targeted for completion in the autumn of 2001, the study Potential Health Effects of Exposure to Low Dose, Low-LET Ionizing Radiation was extended until the autumn of 2003 at the request of the sponsors. Two factors contributing to this decision are discussed: a revised dosimetry to update DS86 for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation's A-bomb-survivor studies and the potential for new information to become available from low-dose studies that are under way. Epidemiological and biological data since BEIR V are being considered by a BEIR VII committee composed of 17 members. The committee's statement of task is reviewed along with the major recommendations of the recent National Research Council report on the status of DS86--recommendations that are being implemented by US and Japan dosimetry working groups.
Douple
Evan
E
National Academies, Washington, DC 20001, USA.
Jostes
Rick
R
D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D018499:Linear Energy Transfer; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011853:Radiobiology; D011870:Radiologic Health; D011874:Radiometry / Q000592:standards; D018570:Risk Assessment