19 Dose can be converted to risk by use of either
radionuclide-specific or overall conversion factors.
The NAS committee referred only to overall
conversions (i.e., risk per rem), which is the typical
approach applied to dose standards when the
specific mix of radionuclides is not well-defined in
advance. The committee saw the direct use of risk
as an advantage if the relationship should change
in the future through new research on low-dose
health effects, because the underlying risk could be
viewed as representing the level of societal
acceptance of health impacts, which the committee
saw as less likely to change, whereas dose could