Sources of errors in the assessment of the health condition in individuals exposed to long-term effects of ionizing radiation

The paper presents basic principles and points of departure which can be used for an appropriate evaluation of the health condition in individuals handling sources of ionizing radiation. They include: accurate establishment of the range and nature of the tissue dose distribution with corresponding clinical effects; knowledge of fundamental regularities governing the development of various variants of chronic radiation sickness; careful differentiation from other diseases and correct appreciation of the significance proper to individual factors in the complex of environmental effects. Main difficulties and possible sources of errors in determining an etiological diagnosis of recorded deviations from the normal state of health and means of overcoming them are enumerated. These include: selection of adequate control groups, correct choice of observation tests and statistical processing of the results derived from investigations. Recommendations as to principal variants of possible clinical and hygienic conclusions and ensuing therefrom suggestions for rational placement are given.