Definition of a disability weight for human exposure to ionizing radiation and its application to the justification of medical exposure.

Objectives: To establish a link between radiation dosimetry and disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) with the aim of quantifying the justification of medical exposures.

Methods: The health detriment, defined as lifetime loss of DALY at age of exposure to ionizing radiation for a US-European population was calculated. A simple model of the relationship was fitted to the results.

ALARP: when does reasonably practicable become rather pricey?

The Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 require employers to restrict radiation doses to their employees and the public to be As Low As Reasonably Practicable. This article looks at the boundary between what might be considered to be reasonable and unreasonable in protecting staff and the general public in the field of hospital-based diagnostic radiology. A simple test for locating this boundary based on a cost-benefit approach is devised and its use illustrated using hospital-based radiation protection examples.