The knowledge of the absorbed radiation dose is essential in order to interpret theresults of animal experiments with chronic ingestion of radionuclides by rodents. In orderto evaluate this absorbed dose, we applied the dose conversion factors proposed by ICRPpublication 108 to mouse chronic ingestion experiments with 20 kBq.L-1 137Cs-or 90Sr-contaminated water. The results indicated that whole-body absorbeddoses were 9 mGy and 10 mGy by the end of 20 weeks of 137Cs or 90Sringestion, respectively. These results of dose calculations were compared with resultsobtained with a more refined method using published organ-specific absorbed fractions ofenergy. There was good agreement between the two methods, indicating that, despite thesimple hypotheses used to apply the ICRP 108 dose conversion factors to our mouse model,this method allows one to calculate in a simple and reliable way the absorbed radiationdose received by the rodents during long-term experiments on chronic ingestion ofradionuclides.
