All of us receive a small amount of radiation all the time from natural sources such as cosmic radiation, rocks, soil and air. Uranium mining does not increase this for members of the public, for aboriginal people living near the mines, or for others outside the industry. A dose is the amount of medically significant radiation a person receives. In Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulations apply. In other countries there are similar arrangements to set health standards for gamma radiation and radon gas exposure, as well as for ingestion and inhalation of radioactive materials.
Standards apply to both workers' and public health.
In practice, radiation protection is based on the understanding that small increases over natural levels of exposure are not likely to be harmful but should be kept to a minimum. No practice involving exposure to radiation should be adopted unless it produces a net benefit to those exposed or to society generally. The exposure of individuals should be subject to dose or risk limits above which the radiation risk would be deemed unacceptable. These principles apply to the potential for accidental exposures as well as predictable normal exposures. Based on these conservative principles, ICRP recommends that the additional dose above natural background and excluding medical exposure should be limited to prescribed levels.