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Re: Sensory Perception of Radiation
I am not sure that humans cannot sense or perceive ionizing radiation.
Several years ago while working in areas with increased radiation levels, I
thought I sensed a "tingling" sensation in and around my eyelids, especially
when my eyes were closed. Perhaps it was psychosomatic, but when I discussed
it with coworkers, some said that they also had a similar sensation. I tried
to interest the AEC (it was a long time ago) into sponsoring a study
(controlled experiments) to investigate the possibility on sensory
perception of radiation, but nobody seemed interested at that time. I forgot
about it until this subject came up here.
Does anyone know if any scientific inquiry has been done on human
sensory perception of radiation?
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"Perhaps we humans lack a specific organ for sensing ionizing radiation
simply because we do not need one. Our bodies’ defense mechanism provides
ample protection over the whole range of natural radiation levels—that is,
from below 1 mSv to above 280 mSv per year.3,4 That range is much greater
than the range of temperatures—about 50K—that humans are normally exposed
to. Increasing the water temperature in your bath tub by only 80 K, from a
pleasant level of 293 K to boiling point at 373 K (that is, by a factor of
only 1.3), or decreasing it below freezing point (that is, by a factor of
1.07), would eventually kill you.
"Because such lethal high or low temperatures are often found in the
biosphere, the evolutionary development of an organ that can sense heat and
cold has been essential for survival. Organs of smell and taste have been
even more vital as defenses against dangerously toxic or infected food. But
a lethal dose of ionizing radiation delivered in one hour—which for an
individual human is 3000 to 5000 mSv—is a factor of 10 million higher than
the average natural radiation dose that one would receive over the same time
period (0.00027 mSv). Compared with other noxious agents, ionizing radiation
is rather feeble. Nature seems to have provided living organisms with an
enormous safety margin for natural levels of ionizing radiation—and also,
adventitiously, for man-made radiation from controlled, peacetime sources.
"In short, conditions in which levels of ionizing radiation could be noxious
do not normally occur in the bioúsphere, so no radiation-sensing organ has
been needed in humans and none has evolved."
Regards, Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Muckerheide" <jmuckerheide@cnts.wpi.edu>
To: <rad-sci-l@ans.ep.wisc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 3:28 PM
Subject: FW: [rad-sci-l] 'Voting with feet' for/against Low vs. Hi Dose Rad!
:-)
> Friends,
>
> Klaus intended this for the group but hit "reply" instead of "Reply All"
as I had changed it (but he's been away :-)
>
> Klaus, who made the ref to the lack of a rad sense? It has been
identified before. Zbigniew?
>
> I have separately sent the pdf paper to Klaus for review. I did not notice
that the journal title was not in the copy I made of the ref/abstract. It's
in the J of Env Radioactivity. They don't have a pub date for it.
>
> Regards, Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Prof.Dr.Klaus.Becker [mailto:Prof.Dr.Klaus.Becker@t-online.de]
> Sent: Thu 30-May-02 8:40 AM
> To: Jim Muckerheide
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [rad-sci-l] 'Voting with feet' for/against Low vs. Hi Dose
Rad! :-)
>
> Friends,
>
> I remember that somebody once mentioned that snails can detect alpha
> radiation, and we all know that heavy cosmic radiation particles cause
> flashes in the closed eyes of astronauts. An interestinbg theory was
> mentioned last week in Greece. During the very long time of evolution,
> we developed warning mechanisms against all import dangers, e.g. pain,
> fever, nasty/dangerous gases, too much light or noice.... The reason
> that we have no detection system for ionizing radiation may simply be
> that "mother nature" did not consider it a serious hazard!
>
> Regards. Klaus
>
> Jim Muckerheide schrieb:
> > Friends, FYI.
> >
> > Our great friends Drs. Yamada and Miyachi, and Dr. Kanao, dramatically
> > demonstrate that organisms that can sense radiation at 15 and 30 times
> > background, SEEK the rad source at 15 times background, and REJECT the
rad source at 30 times background!
> >
> > This is even more dramatic than, if not as compelling as, the rejection
or elimination of tumors by the effect of LDR!
> >
> > Regards, Jim Muckerheide
> > Radiation, Science, and Health
> > =====================
> > Short communication
> > Terrestrial isopods congregate under a low-level
> > <beta>-emitter source
> > Tomoko Kanao (a), Yukihisa Miyachi (a) and Takeshi Yamada (b)
> >
> > a Department of Radiological Sciences, International University of
Health and Welfare, Kitakanemaru 2600-1, Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken 324-8501,
Japan
> > b Low-Dose Radiation Research Center, Central Research Institute of
Electric Power Industry, Komae-shi, Tokyo 201-8511, Japan
> >
> > Received 23 November 2001; revised 12 February 2002; accepted 18
February 2002. Available online 28 May 2002.
> >
> > Abstract
> >
> > Ionizing radiation is ubiquitous, but very few experiments have
investigated
> > the biological effects of the natural background radiation at very low
doses
> > (>10 mGy/yr). We examined whether the background radiation, or
radiation of
> > a slightly higher level, has a role in evoking changes in behaviors of
> > terrestrial isopods (woodlice). Upon exposure to a source giving 15
times
> > the background level placed at one end of a box, a significant increase
in the number of woodlice gathering under the <beta> -source was
> > observed with time, as compared with the sham control.
> >
> > Terrestrial isopods have chemoreceptors (the olfactory system) on the
> > terminal segment of their antennae. An additional experiment confirmed
the involvement of these antennae in the radiation effect on behavior.
After the excision of the antennae, no
> > <beta>-taxis response
> > was observed. The behavior of the group exposed to the source giving 30
> > times the background tended to decrease gradually in the area of the
source,
> > and the individuals aggregated in the area away from the source. Thus,
the
> > olfactory sensor in the antennae may be an important organ involved in
the
> > prompt response to radiation exposure, and the discrimination of the
> > radiation field strengths of radioisotopes.
> >
> > Author Keywords: Radioisotope; Terrestrial isopod; Behavior;
Environmental radioactivity; Hormesis
>
> Klaus Becker, Boothstr. 27, D-12207 Berlin
> Phone/Fax: 0049-30-772-1284
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