Effective dose

The Effective dose considers the different sensitivity of organs and tissues forstochastic radiation effects. For this purpose the equivalent doses are weighted by tissue weighting factors.

The weighting factors represent the relative contributions of the single organs and tissues to the total health detriment resulting from uniform irradiation of the whole body.

Calculation

The effective dose is sum of the the tissue-weighted equivalent doses in all specified organs and tissues of the body. It is weighted such that the sum of the tissue weighting factors is unity.

Unit

The unit of effective dose is J/kg with the special name sievert (Sv). In radiation protection practice usually fractions of the unit dose are used, e. g. millisievert (mSv), microsievert (µSv).