How does COMARE determine radiation dose?
The determination of doses is the special expertise of the Health Protection Agency’s Radiation Protection Division (HPA-RPD) (formerly NRPB), and COMARE uses the HPA-RPD whenever a dose assessment has to be made. Wherever possible, estimates are based on results from measurements on environmental materials. Both the behaviour of radionuclides in the environment, and their behaviour in the human body can be computer modelled. In both cases, these are checked where possible by comparison with actual measurements. Generally, it is found that the environmental modelling is conservative, ie, it tends to overestimate rather than underestimate exposures. When COMARE is involved in an assessment, it likes to examine the factors built into the model and identify those about which it is least confident. COMARE then asks HPA-RPD to recalculate the doses with slightly different assumptions about these factors. In this way it can gauge the likelihood of a gross error in assessment. This is known a
