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Standards of radiation protection in mammographic screening

National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX 11 ORD

This excerpt was created in the absence of an abstract.

We wish to clarify some of the radiological protection issues raised by Moores and Henshaw (1992) in connection with the UK breast cancer screening programme using X-ray mammography.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has defined the category of "medical exposure" as principally the exposure of persons as part of their diagnosis or treatment with such exposure usually intended to provide a direct benefit to the exposed individual (ICRP, 1991). If the practice is justified and the protection optimized, the dose to the patient will be as low as is compatible with the medical purpose. ICRP suggests that the application of limits might be to the patient's detriment and therefore does not recommend dose limits for medical exposures.

Received for publication July 30, 1992. Accepted for publication September 1, 1992.