This paper presents the analytical approaches used and results obtained by the authors in the evaluation of the dose significance of maintaining a microscopic particle of beta-gamma emitting radionuclides on the skin for a finite time interval. The correlation of the response of a portable measuring instrument with radioactivity content of the particle is discussed along with the subsequent evaluation of dose to a limited skin area. Examples are given to show how two independent theoretical approaches were used to estimate the activity of 60Co from a single poor geometry measurement made with a thin window ionization chamber and how the results compared with empirical results from laboratory measurements on a prepared 60Co source. The application of Loevinger's point beta source dose distribution function and other dosimetric information is presented. A summary table and simplified equations to predict beta dose rates to 1 cm2 of tissue at a depth of 7 mg cm-2 for 3.7 X 10(4) Bq point isotropic sources of hypothetical beta emitters ranging in end point energies from 0.2 to 3 MeV and in atomic number from 10 to 90 are also included.