Ionizing Radiation

Abstract

Some of the principal questions that come to mind when considering the exposure of human populations to ionizing radiation are: What are the risks to the people exposed? Will an exposed individual run a higher risk for developing one or another kind of cancer at some time in his or her life? Will the children born to the exposed parent(s) run a higher risk of being afflicted with a genetically caused disease? At the population level, will the increases be trivial, small, or substantial? To be sure, these questions are not new, but they first assumed an unprecedented seriousness in the aftermath of World War II.