Risks from ethylene etc.

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

I just, and finally got in touch with a friend of mine, who did her PhD on 
gray-equivalents of chemicals from risk aspects, DNA damage etc (work 
together with prof. L. Ehrenberg who I mentioned earlier).

My questions were:

1. Does the human body convert ethylene into ethylene oxide?
The answer was yes.

2. What is the risk level from natural ethylene that we get into our bodies 
from the environment?
She then explained that most of the ethylene we get is from endogenous 
bacterial processes in our bodies, but also some smaller amounts from 
vegetables like tomatoes (which already has been mentioned here). And the 
risk: Their estimate is that genotoxic risk from the endogenous production 
of ethylene is of the same order of magnitude as the natural background 
radiation (4 mSv/year).

According to the logic of other political actions we should perhaps launch 
an anti-tomato campaign (as we can't get rid of our bacteria)? A personal 
reflection only.

Bjorn Cedervall    bcradsafers@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/bjorn_cedervall/

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