[ RadSafe ] The Role of Low-Dose Radiation in the Maintenance of Life

[Scott, Bobby]

Thanks John for your additional comments:

Have you published any recent papers in peer-reviewed journals that
address radiation-induced stochastic effects?  If so, I would be
interested in reading such publications.  Possibly others readers of the
Radsafe Digest may also have interest so that you may want to post the
list on Radsafe Digest.

Bobby Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: John Jacobus [mailto:crispy_bird at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 1:50 PM
To: Scott, Bobby; radsafe at radlab.nl
Cc: charles l sanders
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] The Role of Low-Dose Radiation in the
Maintenance of Life 

Dr. Scott,
Thank you for the reply.  Yes, I understood that you
are not involved with human research.  Nevertheless, I
think the work you are doing is important if not for
the same reasons you do.  I resently attended a
lecture by Dr. William S. Dynan of the Medical College
of Georgia on the repair of ionizing radiation-induced
DNA double-strand breaks and implication for
therapeutic treatment.  The work was funded in part by
the DOE low-dose program.  

Nevertheless, nothing that you write about Low dose
effects and the fear of radiaiton is really not that
new.  I and others have heard the arguements before. 
I am not impressed by the claims.  I am certainly
willing to change my mind, but so far the human data
does not appear to me to be that significant.  

I have been in radiation safety and health physics
since 1975.  I have and currently answer questions
people have about medical exposures to themselves and
their children.  Not once have I heard them mention
the LNT.  They do have concerns about radation
exposure, and I try to respond to their concerns
directly.  We know that there are no observable
effects below 10 rem.  All the research on cells,
tissues and mice is not their concern.  The adaptive
response is certainly evident, but they did not get a
stimulating dose before their medical x-ray.  Do you
get a stimulating dose before a medical or dental
x-ray?