In 2011, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommended reducing the occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens of the eye from 150 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year, averaged over five years, with no single year exceeding 50 mSv. With this recommendation, several important assumptions were made, such as lack of dose rate effect, classification of cataracts as a tissue reaction with a dose threshold at 0.5 Gy, and progression of minor opacities into vision-impairing cataracts.

However, although new dose thresholds and occupational dose limits have been set for radiation-induced cataract, ICRP clearly states that the recommendations are chiefly based on epidemiological evidence because there are a very small number of studies that provide explicit biological and mechanistic evidence at doses under 2 Gy.

Since the release of the 2011 ICRP statement, the Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Initiative (MELODI) supported in April 2019 a scientific workshop that aimed to review epidemiological, clinical and biological evidence for radiation-induced cataracts.

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss recent related epidemiological and clinical studies, ophthalmic examination techniques, biological and mechanistic knowledge, and to identify research gaps, towards the implementation of a research strategy for future studies on radiation-induced lens opacities.

The authors recommend particularly to study the effect of ionizing radiation on the lens in the context of the wider, systemic effects, including in the retina, brain and other organs, and as such cataract is recommended to be studied as part of larger scale programs focused on multiple radiation health effects.

2011年，国际放射防护委员会（ICRP）建议将眼晶状体的职业等效剂量限制从五年平均水平的150 mSv /年降低到20 mSv /年，并且没有一年超过50 mSv。在此建议的基础上，做出了几个重要的假设，例如缺乏剂量率效应，将白内障分类为剂量阈值为0.5 Gy的组织反应以及轻微混浊发展为视力障碍性白内障。

但是，尽管已经为放射性白内障设定了新的剂量阈值和职业剂量限值，但ICRP明确指出，这些建议主要基于流行病学证据，因为只有极少数的研究提供了低于剂量的显着生物学和机制证据。 2 Gy。

自2011年ICRP声明发布以来，欧洲低剂量多学科行动（MELODI）于2019年4月支持了一次科学讲习班，旨在审查辐射诱发性白内障的流行病学，临床和生物学证据。

本文的目的是介绍和讨论最新的相关流行病学和临床研究，眼科检查技术，生物学和机械学知识，并确定研究差距，以实施用于将来研究辐射诱发的晶状体混浊的研究策略。

作者特别建议在更广泛的全身性影响下研究电离辐射对晶状体的影响，包括在视网膜，大脑和其他器官，因此建议将白内障作为更大规模计划的一部分进行研究对多种辐射的健康影响。