text: The dose rate from a single uptake decays over time due to both radioactive decay, and biological decay (i.e. excretion from the body). The combined radioactive and biological half-life, called the effective half-life of the material, may range from hours for medical radioisotopes to decades for transuranic waste. Committed dose is the integral of this decaying dose rate over the presumed remaining lifespan of the organism. Most regulations require this integral to be taken over 50 years for uptakes during adulthood or over 70 years for uptakes during childhood. In dosimetry accounting, the entire committed dose is conservatively assigned to the year of uptake, even though it may take many years for the tissues to actually accumulate this dose.