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SECTION VIII. GLOSSARY
ACTION LEVEL
801. The action lev el con sists o f the dose o r range o f doses
expected to be receiv ed by the population, o r lev els of
concentration o r tim e integrals of concentration in the
com ponents o f the environm ent, o r radiation levels in the
environm ent, derived from the d o se s, that ju stify the
perform an ce of rem ed ial m easu res leading to a substantial
reduction of the d o ses, and below which it is unlikely that such
m easu res w ill be ju stified unless they have an exceedin gly
low im pact on the com m unity.
COM PETENT AUTHORITY
802. A com petent authority is a governm ental o r international
authority having ju risd iction with resp ect to the activities
under con sideration.
CRITICAL POPULATION GROUPS
803. The com pliance with the dose lim itation for m em bers of the
public is checked not by m onitoring individuals but by a s s e s s ­
ments through sam pling p roced u res in the environm ent.
The actual d oses receiv ed by individuals w ill vary depending
on sev era l individual fa ctors and it is im p ossible to d e te r­
mine the m axim um dose that might be received individually.
In p ra ctice , it is p ossible to take account of these sou rces of
variability by the selection o f appropriate 'c r itic a l grou ps'
within the population, provided the c r itica l group is sm all
enough to be hom ogeneous with resp ect to the param eters
that affect the dose receiv ed . Such a group should be
represen tative o f those individuals in the population expected
to receiv e the highest d ose, and the ICRP states that it is
reasonable to apply the appropriate dose lim its to the mean
dose of this group.
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