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Radiobiology and gray science: Flaws in landmark new radiation protections

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Abstract

The International Commission on Radiological Protection — whose regularly updated recommendations are routinely adopted as law throughout the globe — recently issued the first-ever ICRP protections for the environment. These draft 2005 proposals are significant both because they offer the commission’s first radiation protections for any non-human parts of the planet and because they will influence both the quality of radiation risk assessment and environmental protection, as well as the global costs of nuclear-weapons cleanup, reactor decommissioning and radioactive waste management. This piece argues that the 2005 recommendations are scientifically and ethically flawed, or gray, in at least three respects: first, in largely ignoring scientific journals while employing mainly “gray literature;” second, in relying on non-transparent dose estimates and models, rather than on actual radiation measurements; and third, in ignoring classical ethical constraints on acceptable radiation risk.

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References

  1. International Commission on Radiological Protection (2005) Draft for Consultation: 2005 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, Stockholm, ICRP; available at 〈http://www.icrp.org/docs/2005_recs_CONSULTATION_Draft1a.pdf>http://www.icrp.org/docs/2005_recs_CONSULTATION_Draft1a.pdf〉.

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Correspondence to Kristin Shrader-Frechette.

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Shrader-Frechette, K. Radiobiology and gray science: Flaws in landmark new radiation protections. SCI ENG ETHICS 11, 167–169 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-005-0037-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-005-0037-9

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