Radiation Source and Health Effects

[FIELDRW@aol.com]

I was reading an interesting paper this morning.

Mortality among the Residents of the Three Mile Island Accident Area: 
1979-1992, which will appear in the June 2000 issue of the journal 
Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 108(6) by Evelyn Talbott et al.  

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p545-552talbott/abstract.html

Dr. Talbott and her co-authors are from the University of Pittsburgh's 
Graduate School of Public Health.  

The second paragraph of the Introduction starts out, 

"Although it has been postulated that radiation from a nuclear accident and 
natural background radiation exposures act on the biologic system in the same 
way (3,4) and that the health effects produced by these types of 
radioactivity are indistinguishable, available human data are insufficient to 
confirm this hypothesis (5).  In addition, the long-term consequences from 
low-dose radiation are clearly of recent concern to the public."

I am interested in others thoughts on the paper.  Please email me directly 
at:  mailto:bill-field@uiowa.edu

REFERENCES 

3 - Crump et al. Fundamental carcinogenic processes and their implications 
for low dose risk assessment.  Cancer Research 36:2973-2979 (19760

4. Crawford and Wilson,  Low -dose linearity: the rule or the exception? 
Human Ecol Risk Assess 2:305-330 (1996)

5.  BEIR V, NAS 1990



Regards,  Bill 

Bill Field
College of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology
bill-field@uiowa.edu

Phone: 319-335-4413
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