[ RadSafe ] 'How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart DiseaseAnd Stroke'
Dan W McCarn
hotgreenchile at gmail.com
Fri Oct 23 14:45:19 CDT 2009
Dear Mike:
Once all confounding issues are accounted for: Correlation between radiation
background per se and atherosclerosis at normal background levels of
radiation may not necessarily be easy to confirm... because there are other
environmental / geogene factors that strongly influence the spatial
distribution of atherosclerosis such as drinking water hardness,
specifically the amount of magnesium in the water that contributes to water
hardness (measured as calcium & magnesium carbonates in water).
There were quite a few studies in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s showing a
strong inverse correlation of water hardness with atherosclerosis involving
quite large populations. That is the softer the water (lower concentrations
of calcium & magnesium) the higher the incidence of sudden death & MI
related to atherosclerotic plaque. At least two of these studies involved
the state of Washington. Likewise, studies finding depressed serum levels
of magnesium are more highly correlated to atherosclerosis.
Another complicating factor may be altitude: Elevated serum hemoglobin which
is correlated with altitude is also correlated with heart disease, MI, and
death. Likewise, altitude is also correlated with higher cosmic radiation.
Living at higher elevations is also correlated with more cardiovascular
exercise, reducing the risk of MI. Cause and effect may become tangled!
I noticed that the paper cited does not look at any other environmental
causes of atherosclerosis and include those factors into his model. From
personal experience, a non-linear model does become quite unstable
numerically if too many factors are involved... But I would certainly
include altitude and water hardness as factors.
Dan ii
--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
3007 S. St. Francis Drive #818
Santa Fe, NM 87508-5938
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HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email)
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of Brennan, Mike (DOH)
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 12:48
To: Radsafe
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] 'How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart
DiseaseAnd Stroke'
This should be fairly easy to verify by looking at long term residents
of areas with different background levels, and seeing if there is a
trend, once all confounding issues are accounted for.
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Monty Charles
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: Mark Ramsay; srp-uk at yahoogroups.com; Radsafe;
HASNET-RAD at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: [ RadSafe ] 'How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart Disease
AndStroke'
I don't think one can be complacent about this. Evidence is slowly
mounting
in support a low dose effect (below 0.5Gy) for non-cancer diseases. One
factor which led ICRP (Publication 103) and UNSCEAR (2006) not to
include non-cancer risks in their general low dose risk estimates was
the
lack of an underlying biological mechanism. The paper of Little et al is
worth
a read. Their mathematical model has a reasonable biological basis and
predicts LNT for cardiovascular disease. The authors point out the
limitations of the the model - but it has the great virtue of being
testable by
in-vitro, animal or human studies. It gains plausibility by predicting
excess
relative risk values in line with observed values from a range of
epidemiology studies. The mathematics will be intractable to many but
the
table which compares model predictions with radiation epidemiology data
is
clear.
Monty Charles
*******************************
> Hi Mark
>
> Thank you for sending the link to the article. It was not a new
> finding. RERF has noted it among the A-bomb
> survivors. It appears that the effect is so small that it is
> unlikely to influence the magnitude of the currently
> accepted risk estimates
>
> Regards
> K S Parthasarathy
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Ramsay <mark.ramsay at ionactive. co.uk>
> To: srp-uk at yahoogroups.com; Radsafe <radsafe at radlab.nl>;
> HASNET-RAD at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Sent: Fri, 23 October, 2009 19:19:17
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] 'How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart
> Disease And Stroke'
>
> Hello all.
>
> 'How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart Disease And Stroke'
>
> Not 'new news' - but latest paper published today - (cat and
> pigeons
> comes to mind if this is accepted).
>
> News article found here: http://tiny.cc/CP9Ha
>
> Full publication of paper found here http://tiny.cc/ssgST
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Ramsay
> Radiation Protection Adviser
>
> Email: mark.ramsay at ionactive. co.uk
> Web: www.ionactive.co.uk
>
> Ionactive on Twitter
> www.twitter.com/ionactive
>
> Ionactive Blog
> www.ionactive.co.uk/blog
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Dr Monty Charles
Reader in Radiation Physics
School of Physics & Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Tel +44(0)121 414 3483
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