Radiological protection science addresses the radiobiological and epidemiological studies of the harmful effects of ionising radiation, as well as radiological exposure and dosimetry, and social sciences. This informs the development of radiological protection policy.
The system of radiological protection continuously evolves to integrate the last findings from research and the feedback from experience, to eventually address modern radiological protection of the public, patients, workers and environment.
The Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) when draft documents of interest to the CRPPH become available for comment, typically draft ICRP recommendations, and draft updates of the IAEA Basic Safety Standards (BSS).
Additionally, the CRPPH is regularly organising workshops on radiological protection fundamentals and key issues dealing with the evolution of the radiological protection system (such as optimisation, reasonableness, stakeholder involvement).
A key radiological protection research area addresses the need to improve our understanding of radiological health risks that might be caused by exposure to low radiation doses, i.e. for doses below to far below ca. 100 millisieverts (mSv). The CRPPH has created a dedicated group to establish international networking to facilitate research co-ordination in the area of low dose research (HLG-LDR).