Re: Risks of low level radiation - New Scientist Article

["dkosloff1" <dkosloff1@EMAIL.MSN.COM>]

The New Scientist article points out that the new information does not

indicate any significant changes in the assumed risks of alpha radiation.

The findings are neutral, as the quotes of the scientists indicated.  In

fact they may have found clues to how radiation improves health.  What is

striking is the negative bias injected by the New Scientist writer.  Please

see comments below.



----- Original Message -----

From: "Norman Cohen" <ncohen12@HOME.COM>

To: <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 7:52 PM

Subject: Risks of low level radiation - New Scientist Article





SNIP

>"The effects of radiation are very complex," concludes Hongning Zhou of

Columbia

>University in New York, a member of the team. "We should reconsider the

risks of low >levels."



That is ongoing and should include recognizing that there is no risk or

benefit depending on dose.



>Current estimates of the risks of radiation come mainly from studies of

>cancer rates in survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and

>Nagasaki, where the levels of radiation were very high.



That is certainly something that should be changed.



>Scientists work out the risks of less intense radiation assuming that the

cell damage

>falls off in direct proportion to the radiation dose.  But that might not

be true.  Over the

>past few years, experiments have shown that the effects of radiation in

cells are

>unexpectedly complicated due to a so-called "bystander effect", in which a

radiated

>cell can alter the protein production of neighbouring cells.



We already know the LNT is wrong at low doses, this effect may be part of

the reason that radiation improves health.



>Until there are detailed studies of low-level radiation on animal and human

>tissues, no one will know if this is cause for alarm.



Or if this is a cause for joy because it may demonstrate why radiation is

beneficial and at exactly what doses.



Don Kosloff dkosloff1@msn.com

2910 Main Street, Perry Oh 44081



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