Department of Energy (DOE) Radiological Control Manual

Chapter 2 - Radiological Standards

Appendix B - Weighting Factors for Organs and Tissues

           ORGANS OR TISSUES          WEIGHTING FACTOR


                    Gonads                  0.25
                   Breasts                  0.15
           Red bone marrow                  0.12
                     Lungs                  0.12
                   Thyroid                  0.03
             Bone surfaces                  0.03
                 Remainder                  0.30
                Whole Body                  1.00

Notes:

1. Weighting factors as defined in ICRP Publication 26 and NCRP Report 91 are used to convert organ or tissue dose equivalent to effective dose equivalent for the whole body. The effective dose equivalent is obtained by multiplying the organ dose by the weighting factor. For example, a 5 rem dose to the thyroid would be multiplied by the weighting factor 0.03 to yield 0.15 rem.

2. "Remainder" means the five other organs or tissues with the highest dose (e.g. liver, kidney, pancreas, stomach, small intestine and upper large intestine). The weighting factor of 0.3 results from 0.06 for each of the five remainder organs.

3. For the case of uniform external irradiation of the whole body, a weighting factor equal to 1 may be used in the determination of the effective dose equivalent.