Standard Person

The standard person or reference person is a theoretical individual that has perfectly "normal" characteristics. This model is used for much research into radiation safety. For many years, the standard person was called reference man because the work assumed a healthy, young adult male. In recent years, reference woman and reference child models have been created, along with variations on body size, age, sex, and race.

In the future, the model may be expanded to include selected plants and animals. Eventually, for medical purposes, the concept may be replaced by effective attention to measuring the exposure of individual patients to radiation.