Hormesis?

["Harry Hinks" <harryhinks@hotmail.com>]

I read most of Mr. Muckerheide's abstracts he referenced. Overall they all 
come from the same institute and are sight permutations of each other.  They 
also involve whole body x-ray irradiation.  Is there any evidence that alpha 
particle irradiation to the lung is beneficial.  These recent articles do 
not appear to support that.


Br J Cancer 2001 Jan;84(1):134-140

Lung cancer in lifetime nonsmoking men - results of a case-control study in 
Germany.

Kreuzer M, Gerken M, Kreienbrock L, Wellmann J, Wichmann HE

BfS - Federal Office of Radiation Protection, Institute of Radiation 
Hygiene, Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, Neuherberg, 85764

Epidemiological studies of lung cancer among nonsmoking men are few. This 
case-control study was conducted among lifetime nonsmoking men between 1990 
and 1996 in Germany to examine lung cancer risk in relation to occupation, 
environmental tobacco smoke, residential radon, family history of cancer and 
previous lung disease. A total of 58 male cases with confirmed primary lung 
cancer and 803 male population controls who had never smoked more than 400 
cigarettes in their lifetime were personally interviewed by a standardized 
questionnaire. In addition, 1-year radon measurements in the living and 
bedroom of the subjects' last dwelling were carried out. Unconditional 
logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% 
confidence intervals (CI). Having ever worked in a job with known lung 
carcinogens was associated with a two-fold significantly increased lung 
cancer risk (OR = 2.2; Cl = 1.0-5.0), adjusted for age and region. The 
linear trend test for lung-cancer risk associated with radon exposure was 
close to statistical significance, demonstrating an excess relative risk for 
an increase in exposure of 100 Bq m(-3)of 0.43 (P = 0.052). Nonsignificantly 
elevated effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in public 
transportation and in social settings were observed. No associations with a 
family history of cancer or previous lung diseases were found. Our results 
indicate that occupational carcinogens and indoor radon may play a role in 
some lung cancers in nonsmoking men. Copyright 2001 Cancer Research 
Campaign.
------------------------------

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2001 Jan 9
Direct evidence for the participation of gap junction-mediated intercellular 
communication in the transmission of damage signals from alpha -particle 
irradiated to nonirradiated cells.

Azzam EI, de Toledo SM , Little JB

Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Laboratory of Radiobiology, Harvard 
School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115.

It has generally been considered that important biological effects of 
ionizing radiation arise as a direct consequence of DNA damage occurring in 
irradiated cells. We have examined this hypothesis by exposing cells to very 
low fluences of alpha-particles, similar to those emitted by radon gas, such 
that as few as 1% of the cells in a population are traversed by a particle 
and thus receive any radiation exposure. By using the endpoints of changes 
in gene expression and induction of DNA damage, we show that nonirradiated 
"bystander" cells participate in the overall response of confluent 
density-inhibited populations of cultured fibroblast and epithelial cells. 
By in situ immunofluorescence techniques and the use of cells genetically 
compromised in their ability to perform gap junction intercellular 
communication, we present direct evidence for the involvement of 
connexin43-mediated intercellular communication in the transmission of 
damage signals to nonirradiated cells. Induction of the stress-inducible 
p21(Waf1) protein in aggregates of neighboring cells far exceeding the 
fraction of cells whose nucleus has been traversed occurred in gap 
junction-competent cells only. These changes in p21(Waf1) expression 
correlated with both the induction of DNA damage (as measured by 
micronucleus formation) as well as increased Ser-15 phosphorylation of p53.

-------------------------------------

J Epidemiol Community Health 2000 Nov;54(11):822-6
Childhood leukaemia in areas with different radon levels: a spatial and 
temporal analysis using GIS

Kohli S, Noorlind Brage H , Lofman O

Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Public Health 
Centre, University Hospital, S-581 85, Linkoping, Sweden.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relation between exposure to ground radon levels 
and leukaemia among children using existing population and disease 
registers. DESIGN: Ecological correlation study. SETTING: The county of 
Ostergotland in Sweden. METHODS: Every child born in the county between 1979 
and 1992 was mapped to the property centroid coordinates by linking 
addresses in the population and property registers. Population maps were 
overlaid with radon maps and exposure at birth and each subsequent year was 
quantified as high, normal, low or unknown. This was analysed with data from 
the tumour registry. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated 
using the age and sex specific rates for Sweden for the year 1995. RESULTS: 
90 malignancies occurred among 53 146 children (498 887 person years) who 
formed the study population. SMRs for acute lymphatic leukaemia (ALL) among 
children born in high, normal and low risk areas were 1.43, 1.17 and 0.25 
respectively. The relative risk for the normal risk group and high risk 
group as compared with the low risk group was 4.64 (95% CI 1.29, 28.26) and 
5. 67 (95% CI 1.06, 42.27). The association between ALL and continued 
residence at normal or high risk areas showed a similar trend. No 
association between radon risk levels and any other malignancy was seen. 
CONCLUSION: Children born in and staying at areas where the risk from ground 
radon has been classified as low are less likely to develop ALL than those 
born in areas classified as normal and high risk.


Harry Hinks
harryhinks@hotmail.com

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html