Choosing an alpha radiation weighting factor for doses to non-human biota

The risk to non-human biota from exposure to ionizing radiation is of current international interest. In calculating radiation doses to humans, it is common to multiply the absorbed dose by a factor to account for the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the radiation type. However, there is no international consensus on the appropriate value of such a factor for weighting doses to non-human biota. This paper summarizes our review of the literature on experimentally determined RBEs for internally deposited alpha-emitting radionuclides. The relevancy of each experimental result in selecting a radiation weighting factor for doses from alpha particles in biota was judged on the basis of criteria established a priori. We recommend a nominal alpha radiation weighting factor of 5 for population-relevant deterministic and stochastic endpoints, but to reflect the limitations in the experimental data, uncertainty ranges of 1-10 and 1-20 were selected for population-relevant deterministic and stochastic endpoints, respectively.     

Efficient removal of antibiotics from water resources is a public health priority: a critical assessment of the efficacy of some remediation strategies for antibiotics in water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This review discusses the fundamental principles and mechanism of antibiotic removal from water of some commonly applied treatment techniques...     

Correction to: Efficient removal of antibiotics from water resources is a public health priority: a critical assessment of the efficacy of some remediation strategies for antibiotics in water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -