How are effects of radiation classified?
There are two basic categories of the biological effects that may be observed in irradiated persons. These are 1) due largely to cell killing (deterministic) and 2 mutations which may result in cancer and hereditary effects (stochastic or probabilistic ). Effects due to cell killing (such as skin necrosis) have a practical threshold dose below which the effect is not evident but in general when the effect is present its severity increases with the radiation dose. The threshold dose is not an absolute number and vary somewhat by individual. Effects due to mutations (such as cancer) have a probability of occurrence that increases with dose, it is currently judged that there is not a threshold below which the effect will not occur and finally the severity of the effects is independent of the dose. Thus a cancer caused by a small amount of radiation can be just as malignant as one caused by a high dose. Deterministic effects. These effects are observed after large absorbed doses of radiati
