The unit for effective dose is the sievert; it reflects what concept?

The unit for effective dose is the sievert; it reflects what concept?

• A. Energy deposited in tissue
• B. Tissue weighting factors applied to absorbed dose
• C. Absorbed dose in grays
• D. Radiation exposure in air

Answer: (B)

The sievert captures how harmful the radiation is to the body by weighting the absorbed dose in each tissue according to that tissue’s sensitivity. It isn’t a measure of energy deposited; gray is that energy indicator. The effective dose combines the absorbed dose for each tissue with tissue weighting factors that reflect relative risk, and then sums these contributions. This gives a single number that represents overall potential harm from the radiation exposure. In practice, for x-rays and gamma rays the radiation weighting factor is 1, so the equivalent dose in sieverts equals the absorbed dose in gray, but to get the overall risk you still apply the tissue weighting factors.

The sievert captures how harmful the radiation is to the body by weighting the absorbed dose in each tissue according to that tissue’s sensitivity. It isn’t a measure of energy deposited; gray is that energy indicator. The effective dose combines the absorbed dose for each tissue with tissue weighting factors that reflect relative risk, and then sums these contributions. This gives a single number that represents overall potential harm from the radiation exposure. In practice, for x-rays and gamma rays the radiation weighting factor is 1, so the equivalent dose in sieverts equals the absorbed dose in gray, but to get the overall risk you still apply the tissue weighting factors.