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Hormesis involves more than just
"tolerance". Hormesis actually means a positive stimulation in response to low
doses of an agent that would be harmful at high dosage.
For exposure to ionizing radiation,
hormesis is a most appropriate analogy to vaccination for at least two
reasons:
1) There is abundant evidence that radiation
elicits an adaptive response whereby low doses administered to single cells or
to whole organisms such as mice enhance resistance to rather substantial
dose challenges given a later time. This is similar in nature to stimulation of
the immune response system by antibody formation in response to degraded
bacteria & viruses as is the case with vaccination. and
2) Radiation generally enhances
immune response systems by stimulating T-cell production and
otherwise promoting resistance to various disease processes including
cancer.
If anyone wants to review
scientific evidence supporting the above, it is available in the compendium of
data on "Low Level Radiation Effects", assembled by Jim Muckerheide at
RS&H.
Personally, I have no trouble
accepting the LNT hypothesis (or similar monotonic) relationship for radiation
effects as far as DNA interaction (mutation, etc.) goes. However, considering
the total spectrum of radiation effects, including those mentioned above, I
think it is reasonable to conclude that at low doses (in the case of humans, I
would estimate <~10cSv/yr.), the beneficial effects prevail, while at much
higher doses, the harmful effects overwhelm anything that might be good in
nature. It might be of interest to note that all background radiation levels,
even in high background areas such as Kerala and Ramsar are suboptimal.
Therefore, it is no wonder that studies in the USA, China, and India reveal a
negative correlation between background radiation levels and cancer
incidence.
Should people seek
supplementary radiation to take advantage of its beneficial effects? Why not?
Thousands are already doing so as evidenced by the popularity of radium spas in
Europe and elsewhere.
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