title: Choosing an alpha radiation weighting factor for doses to non-human biota.
abstract: The risk to non-human biota from exposure to ionizing radiation is of current international interest. In calculating radiation doses to humans, it is common to multiply the absorbed dose by a factor to account for the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the radiation type. However, there is no international consensus on the appropriate value of such a factor for weighting doses to non-human biota. This paper summarizes our review of the literature on experimentally determined RBEs for internally deposited alpha-emitting radionuclides. The relevancy of each experimental result in selecting a radiation weighting factor for doses from alpha particles in biota was judged on the basis of criteria established a priori. We recommend a nominal alpha radiation weighting factor of 5 for population-relevant deterministic and stochastic endpoints, but to reflect the limitations in the experimental data, uncertainty ranges of 1-10 and 1-20 were selected for population-relevant deterministic and stochastic endpoints, respectively.
authors.affiliation: SENES Consultants Limited, 121 Granton Drive, Unit 12, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 3N4, Canada. dchambers@senes.ca
authors.forename: Douglas B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Chambers
authors.forename: Richard V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Osborne
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Garva
mesh_terms: D000512:Alpha Particles; D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D044822:Biodiversity; D001822:Body Burden; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011874:Radiometry; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D012449:Safety