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Ionising radiation

Environmental Radioactivity - Medicine - Occupational Radiation Protection - Nuclear Hazards Defence

Ionisierende Strahlung

Radiation protection

Ionising radiation can induce various effects. Effects that cause mostly immediate damage in tissues and organs and occur above a dose threshold are referred to as deterministic effects. Stochastic effects occur later, are based on damage in the genetic material and have no threshold. Radiation protection is aimed at reliably preventing deterministic radiation effects. The risk for stochastic effects is to be lowered to a reasonably achievable level.

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Principles of radiation protection

Ionising radiation can trigger both deterministic and stochastic effects. The aim of radiation protection is to prevent reliably the deterministic effects of radiation. In order to keep the risk of stochastic damage from ionising radiation as low as possible, three general principles have been set out in radiation protection for dealing with ionising radiation: justification, dose limitation, and optimisation.

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Radiation Protection Register

The Radiation Protection Register is a central dose register for the surveillance of occupational radiation exposure. It has the task to control continuously the keeping of the body dose limits of all occupationally exposed persons in Germany and the issuing of radiation passbooks for itinerant workers. The Radiation Protection Register contributes to the international development of the occupational radiation protection as to the state of science and technology and to the harmonization of the occupational radiation protection monitoring in Europe.

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Occupational radiation protection international

In order to be effective and future-oriented, occupational radiation protection has also to engage beyond national borders. Therefore, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection's (BfS) Radiation Protection Register participates in the further development of occupational radiation protection on an international level.

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Friedensdenkmal in Hiroshima

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: significance for radiation protection

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were to date the only time nuclear weapons were used in a military conflict. The health effects are vrious. The studies on health effects in the survivors are still an important basis for setting limit values in radiation protection and provide knowledge on the health risks of ionising radiation.

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Statistical evaluations from the Radiation Protection Register

In Germany in 2016 about 440,000 people have been classified as occupationally exposed to radiation. Among these, 366,000 workers were monitored with official dosimeters. About 43,000 individuals were part of air craft crews and thus exposed to increased cosmic radiation.

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Radiation exposure in work activities: Guide

In the Guide to the Monitoring of Radiation Exposure in Work Activities, basic legal and practical information is provided for the protection of radiation exposure in work activities, considering in particular work places with natural terrestrial radiation sources such as radon or uranium and thorium and their decay products.

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