Answer to Question #126 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Doses and Dose Calculations — Internal dose calculations

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

Does there exist a model or form that rates, classifies, or categorizes radionuclides according to hazard, specifically in the laboratory setting? If you can find one or a variety, please forward them to me. Your help is greatly appreciated.

The risk coefficients given in Federal Guidance 13 (FGR-13) can be used to categorize radionuclides according to total cancer risk, for the case of environmental exposure through a given exposure mode addressed in that document (inhalation, ingestion of food, ingestion of tap water, and certain external exposure modes). The methods of FGR-13 can also be applied to occupational exposure, but this has not yet been done. For occupational exposure, one could do a crude ranking based on the ICRP effective dose.

Rich Leggett
Keith Eckerman
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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