ICRP Publication 152

Radiation detriment is a concept developed by the International Commission

on Radiological Protection to quantify the burden of stochastic effects from lowdose

and/or low-dose-rate exposures to the human population. It is determined from

the lifetime risks of cancer for a set of organs and tissues and the risk of heritable

effects, taking into account the severity of the consequences. This publication provides

a historical review of detriment calculation methodology since ICRP

Publication 26, with details of the procedure developed in ICRP Publication 103,

which clarifies data sources, risk models, computational methods, and rationale for

the choice of parameter values. A selected sensitivity analysis was conducted to

identify the parameters and calculation conditions that can be major sources of

variation and uncertainty in the calculation of radiation detriment. It has demonstrated

that sex, age at exposure, dose and dose-rate effectiveness factor, dose

assumption in the calculation of lifetime risk, and lethality fraction have a substantial

impact on radiation detriment values. Although the current scheme of radiation

detriment calculation is well established, it needs to evolve to better reflect changes in

population health statistics and progress in scientific understanding of radiation

health effects. In this regard, some key parameters require updating, such as the

reference population data and cancer severity. There is also room for improvement

in cancer risk models based on the accumulation of recent epidemiological findings.

Finally, the importance of improving the comprehensibility of the detriment concept

and the transparency of its calculation process is emphasised.