A dosimetric quantity useful for comparing the overall health affects of irradiation of the whole body. It takes into account the absorbed doses received by various organs and tissues and weighs them according to present knowledge of the sensitivity of each organ to radiation. It also accounts for the type of radiation and the potential for each type to inflict biologic damage. The effective dose is used, for example, to compare the overall health detriments of different radionuclides in a given mix. The unit of effective dose is the sievert (sv); 1 sv = 1 j/kg. For more information, see “primer on radiation measurement” from cdc. See also what is effective dose?