Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2005
People in France drink commonly mineral spring waters from those regions where concentrations of natural radionuclides are high. Using the recently updated age dependent dose coefficientsrecommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, (Publications 56, 67, 69, and 72), it is shown that the largely consumed natural waters can be separated into twocategories: non gaseous waters for which a constant exclusive consumption would result into an annual committed effective dose around than 0.03 mSv; and the saline and gaseous ones forwhich, in same conditions, the dose would be 10 to 40 times higher. For the infant, the diet of whom is often including largely the first category, the annual effective dose committed over 70 yearsof lifetime would be around than 0.3 mSv.