The purpose of the ICRP detriment concept is to enable a quantitative comparison of stochastic radiation damage for the various organs. For this purpose, the organ-specific nominal risk coefficients are weighted with a function that is intended to express the amount of damage or, respectively, the severity of a disease. This function incorporates a variety of variables that do not depend on radiation parameters, but on characteristics of the disease itself. The question is raised as to whether the rather subtle way of defining the amount of damage is necessary for radiation protection purposes and whether a much simpler relationship can serve for this purpose as well or even better.
Keywords: Damage function; Detriment; ICRP 103; Incidence probability per dose; Mortality probability per dose; Nominal risk coefficient; Radiation risk; Tissue weighting factor.