ALARA and an integrated approach to radiation protection.

Exposures of individuals to ionizing radiation have been restricted for many years by a number of guidelines and rules developed by various advisory and regulatory groups. Accompanying these restrictions has been an evolving principle that exposures to individuals and groups should be kept "as low as reasonably achievable" (ALARA), consistent with provision of the benefits of radiation use to society. Although the ALARA concept is a laudable goal in principle, its implementation in a clinical facility has not been a straightforward process. Problems of implementing ALARA have been confounded further by the efforts of regulatory agencies to incorporate the ALARA concept into regulations governing radiation exposures. To facilitate the implementation of ALARA as a workable construct in a clinical facility, guidelines are needed for its application to both individual and collective exposures to radiation. The provision of such guidelines, including action and inaction levels for both individual and collective exposures, are presented here.