The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) assesses the levels and effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. UNSCEAR's scientific findings underpin radiation risk evaluation and international protection standards. This report comprises a report to the General Assembly with two underpinning scientific annexes. The first annex recapitulates and clarifies the philosophy of science as well as the scientific knowledge for attributing observed health effects in individuals and populations to radiation exposure, and distinguishes between that and inferring risk to individuals and populations from an exposure. The second annex reviews the latest thinking and approaches to quantifying the uncertainties in assessments of risk from radiation exposure, and illustrates these approaches with application to examples that are highly pertinent to radiation protection. The report is a landmark publication in terms of our understanding of the confidence that can be attached to the attribution of health effects in individuals and populations, and to the estimation of risks inferred from exposure to ionizing radiation.
This publication, the first of two volumes of scientific annexes, provides a detailed review of scientific material that underpins the Committee's evaluation of the radiation doses and effects due to the accident which occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on 11 March 2011. It covers the amount and composition of radioactive material released to the environment, the pattern of dispersion and deposition of the radioactive material over land and sea, the radiation doses received by the general public and workers, the radiation effects on the environment, the radioactivity in foodstuffs and the implications of the radiation exposures for human health and the environment. The evaluation uses information provided before the UNSCEAR 60th session (May 2013) by 26 United Nations Member States and 5 international organizations, as well as peer-reviewed literature.
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