[ RadSafe ] Uncertainties are too large to decide either way!

[parthasarathy k s]

Dear Dr.Rainer Facius,
 
I am sorry I did not indicate the average radiation level. The average is about 7.5 mGy in the high background radiation area.
 
During the seven years in which I was a member of the monitoring committee of the Natural High Background Radiation Cancer Registry project, I used to insist on taking away the pencil and graph sheets of some of the members to prevent them from drawing any graph! Since you are too far away I cannot do that! as expected, you drew the graph!
 
I feel that the conclusions in the paper in Radiation Research is only preliminary.Lot more work needs to be done; particularly on doses to individual inhabitants. We have to account for radon/thoron contribution, contribution of thorium in blood etc.
 
Let us wait for the final result; till such time your conclusion may be correct! the reverse also may be true.
 
Regards
 
K.S.Parthasarathy Ph.D
Raja Ramanna Fellow
Deprtment of Atomic Energy
Mumbai 



 

Rainer.Facius at dlr.de wrote:

Dear colleague:

 

Thank you for your addendum regarding the maximum dose rates in Kerala of 70 mGy per annum which, however, as far as I know cannot be considered representative for population exposures. By the way, the - insignificant - negative trend for cancer mortality was also apparent from the paper you quoted, as the regression lines in the attached graph show.

 

Please keep us informed about any follow-up studies on this population.

 

Kind regards, Rainer

 
Dr. Rainer Facius
German Aerospace Center
Institute of Aerospace Medicine
Linder Hoehe
51147 Koeln
GERMANY
Voice: +49 2203 601 3147 or 3150
FAX:   +49 2203 61970
 


---------------------------------
Von: parthasarathy k s [mailto:ksparth at yahoo.co.uk] 
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 4. August 2005 13:33
An: Facius, Rainer; hflong at pacbell.net; fly5515 at yahoo.com; radsafe at radlab.nl
Cc: Reitz, Günther; Meier, Matthias
Betreff: Re:Cancer incidence in high background radiation area in Kerala



Dear Dr. Rainer Facius,
 
Your explanation is brief and to the point. I just wanted to bring the following to all who are interested in natural back ground radiation:
 
You referred to the highbackground radiation area in Kerala.Krishnan Nair et al. (Radiation Research, 152,S145-148, 1999) carried out a comprehensive survey  of the population exposed.In certain regions the environmental radiation dose is as high as 70 mGy/year .
In the preliminary analysis, there is no evidence that the cancer incidence is consistently higher because of the levels of external gamma radiation exposure in the area.
 
The study covered 100,000 people from the high background area and 300.000 in the low background radiation area 
 
K.S.Parthasarathy
Raja Ramanna Fellow
Deprtment of Atomic Energy
Mumbai 




		
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