Re: safe at any level???

[Tim <tstead@ntirs.org>]

I find hormesis very compelling.  For one thing,

mankind has been on this planet for quite a long time

absorbing all the radiation that the Earth and sky

have dished out.  It is therefore quite unreasonable,

after all this time, to assume that mankind (and

indeed, all of Earth's terrestrial creatures) has not

adapted in some way to ionizing radiation over the

past tens of thousands - or millions - of years

(depending upon your belief).



If you believe in evolution, then hormesis is a

natural extention of that.  Survival of the fittest -

those that could not tolerate radiation became

extinct.  Those that could tolerate it survived.



If you believe in creationism, then it makes little

sense to assume that God forgot about radiation

protection when he created us.



Tim



--- Jerry Cohen <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET> wrote:

> >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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