Quantitative Aspects of Risk

Risk is a nebulous concept, but when low risk equipment leads to major consequences, the public teds that. something is wrong - especially after the media perform their work. Putting risk on a mathematical foundation is a first step in setting a number to risk. 

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What are the quantitative aspects of risk in low-level radiation exposures The data are at best uncertain (see Table 13.3), but estimates have been calculated from such human experience as medical x-ray (diagnostic and therapeutic), radiation accidents and inadvertant exposures, data from nuclear tests and from the Japanese experience, and similar sources. Because of the presence of many variables, these data are subject to a wide margin of error. Regulatory agencies have derived limits of exposure based upon a linear dose-response relationship and have assumed that no dose threshold exists. This approach is the most conservative, and will limit the risk to produce the smallest individual risk in all cases (346). 

Jollow, D.J., et al. Workshop Quantitative Aspects of Risk Assessment in Chemical Carcinogenesis, Rome, Italy, 1979 (Chem. Rundschau 32. Nr. 19, 9. May 1979)... 

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