Medical Aspects of Protection from Ionizing Radiations

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Abstract
A General survey of the question of protection from the harmful effects of radiation is timely because of the widening of the field by the introduction of the new high energy sources of ionizing particles, because of the spreading use of radioactive isotopes, because of the symbiosis which characterises the relationship of the physicist and the radiotherapist in this country, and because of the access of knowledge of dosage and insight into radiobiological phenomena which have become possible of recent years. From the exponential nature of the absorption curves of penetrating radiations it follows that complete protection of workers from penetrating radiation is impossible. From the knowledge that one ionization can effect chemical change in one molecule of a cell, and that a few ionizations can cause a chromosome break in a cell nucleus, it follows that all radiation is harmful in a strictly biological sense. The essential problem in “protection” is to limit the dose received so that the harm done does not at any time affect the health of the individual “protected” or of his progeny. By implication there is a maximum permissible dose or dosage rate, the level of which must depend on the biological effects produced. Theoretically, the ideal would be complete protection. In practice the dose permitted has been, and will continue to be, determined by current informed opinion on what protection is practicable, consistent with prevention of harmful effects.
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