The management of the risks of exposure of people to ionizing radiation is important in relation to its uses in industry and medicine, also to natural and man-made radiation in the environment. The vase majority of exposures are at a very low level of radiation dose. The risks are of inducing cancer in the exposed individuals and a smaller risk of inducing genetic damage that can be transmitted to children conceived after exposure. Studies of these risks in exposed population studies with any accuracy above the normal levels of cancer and genetic defects unless the dose levels are high. In practice, this means that our knowledge depends very largely on the information gained from the follow-up of the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities. The risks calculated from these high-dose short-duration exposures then have to be projected down to the low-dose long-term exposures that apply generally. Recent research using cells in culture has revealed that the relations between high- and low-dose biological damage may be much more complex than had previously been thought. The aims of this and other projects in the DOE's Low-Dose Program are to gain an understanding of the biological actions of low-dose radiation, ultimately to provide information that will lead to more accurate quantification of low-dose risk.
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