Any progress comes at a price. As it frequently happens with new technologies, harmful
effects of prolonged radiation exposures were not immediately known. While certain
adverse effects became obvious just months after Roentgen’s discovery, others came later
due to a latency period. The latter was, no doubt, one of the major contributors to the
delay in the acceptance of radiation protection procedures. Lack of radiation measurement
units was another; for a number of years, erythema on patient’s skin was considered
an indicator of an appropriate dose. General radiation protection measures were eventually
adopted following the establishment of the International Radiation Protection
Committee (ICRP) in 1928. Its initial recommendations were directed at medical practice,
but current ones are applicable to a wide range of uses of radiation. Shortly after the formation
of the ICRP, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements
(NCRP) was established in the United States with a mission similar to that of the ICRP.