Which quantity is used to estimate stochastic risk for the whole body?

• A. Effective dose (EfD)
• B. Absorbed dose
• C. Exposure
• D. Equivalent dose

Answer: (A)

Estimating stochastic risk for the whole body requires a single quantity that blends how sensitive each tissue is to radiation with the type of radiation involved, producing a risk proxy for the entire body. That quantity is the effective dose. It sums the equivalent doses to all tissues, each weighted by a tissue weighting factor that reflects relative risk, yielding a single value in sieverts that represents overall stochastic risk. Absorbed dose is just energy deposited per mass in one tissue and doesn’t reflect how different tissues respond; exposure measures ionization in air; equivalent dose accounts for radiation type for specific tissues but doesn’t aggregate across the whole body. So the effective dose is used to estimate whole-body stochastic risk.