The present paper summarizes recent experiments at the JRC, aiming to determine the relative damage effects produced in a-SiO2 by particles of different mass and energy, so as to correlate typical defects with specific production mechanisms. By systematic analysis of optical absorption spectra, the main colour centres that are currently associated with primary irradiation effects were characterized. Centres responsible for the B2-band (5.04 eV) and E'-band (5.78 eV) were quantitatively investigated with respect to particle type, production yield and saturation behaviour. Arguments taken from energy loss and dpa seem to suggest that the E' centre is based on a stable structural substrate, which is not reconciled with simple ideas of a broken bond. The B2centre is confirmed to be associated with atomic defects produced by collisions. New determinations in the vacuum u.v., performed on heavy-ion irradiated samples, seem to put this centre in quantitative relationship to a centre responsible for a 7.15 eV absorption.