Quantitative risk in radiation protection standards.

Although the overall aim of radiobiology is to understand the biological effects of radiation, it also has the implied practical purpose of developing rational measures for the control of radiation exposure in man. The emphasis in this presentation is to show that the enormous effort expended over the years to develop quantitative dose-effect relations relationships in biochemical and cellular systems, animals and human beings, now seems to be paying off. The pieces appear to be falling into place, and a framework is evolving to utilize these data. Specifically, quantitative risk assessments will be discussed in terms of the cellular, animal and human data on which they are based; their use in the development of radiation protection standards; and their present and potential impact and meaning in relation to the quantity dose equivalent and its special unit, the rem. Recent neutron carcinogenesis data in man are evaluated.