Doubling Dose

The doubling dose is the dose of radiation required to cause the same number of mutations that occur spontaneously in the population.

Some doubling dose values have been derived from atomic bomb survivors (from Schull et all, 1981):

Genetic Indicator	Doubling Dose (Sv)
Untoward pregnancy outcome	0.69
Childhood mortality	1.47
Sex chromosome aneuploidy	2.52
Simple average	1.56

Estimates of the doubling dose generally place it at or above 1 Sv. Data from nuclear bomb survivors is for acute exposure only.