Living with radiation

Synopsis

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction
  • Types of radiation
  • Benefits and risks
  • Public anxiety
• Concepts and quantities
  • Structure of matter
  • Radioactivity and radiation
  • Ionisation in matter
  • Ionisation in tissue
  • Dose quantities
• Sources of ionising radiation
• Effects of ionising radiation
  • Induction of cancers
  • Risk assessments
  • Risk factors for cancers
  • Hereditary disease
  • Communal risk
  • Other late effects
  • Irradiation in pregnancy
• System of radiological protection
  • General principles
  • Scope of application
  • Justification of practices
  • Optimisation of protection
  • Limitation of doses
  • Constraints
  • Comparing risks
  • Legal controls
• Natural ionising radiation
  • Cosmic radiation
  • Gamma radiation
  • Radon inhalation
  • Internal irradiation
  • Total doses
• Medical uses of ionising radiation
  • Diagnostic radiology
  • Nuclear medicine
  • Radiotherapy
  • Reference doses
  • Total doses
• Occupational exposure to ionising radiation
  • Artificial sources
  • Natural sources
  • Total doses
• Environmental pollution
  • Weapons tests
  • Chernobyl accident
  • Radioactive discharges
  • Total doses
• Nuclear power
  • Nuclear reactors
  • Waste management
  • Decommissioning
  • Disposal criteria
• Nuclear emergencies
  • Countermeasures
  • Emergency arrangements
  • Intervention standards
  • Minor incidents
• Electromagnetic fields and radiation
  • Common sources
  • Immediate effects
  • Delayed effects
• Optical radiation
  • Ultraviolet radiation
  • Other optical radiations
• Appendices
  • Glossary
  • Symbols and units
  • NRPB publications

Last reviewed: 1 December 2009