Re: safe at any level???

["Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET>]

>He does our profession no good,

>by distributing his exteme standpoint, which declares any radiation

exposure

>as being beneficial, how high it ever might be.



Franz,

    And you do a disservice by misqoting/misinterpreting what Jim has said.

Neither Jim nor anyone else I know of has claimed that very high doses of

radiation are beneficial. What hormesis advocates suggest is that there is

an optimal dose level for radiation. This optimal dose level may vary

between individuals, but  probably lies somewhere between 1.0 and 100.0

rem/a.

Below this optimum, increasing doses are increasingly beneficial to the

recipient. Above the optimum, increasing doses are increasingly detrimental

up to the point of death. Graphically, this relationship can be defined in

the form of a U shaped curve.Whether one agrees or disagrees with it, I

wonder why  this concept is so hard to understand?



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