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RE: The Ultimate Hormesis Paper
This is indeed a provocative paper. Dr. Luan has been presenting this
information at ANS and other meetings for several years, including the
special ANS session on low-dose radiation health effects arranged by Jim
Muckerheide in 1999. But there is marked reluctance by responsible
organizations to follow up on it. The data need further refinement, in
particular age adjustment. But I understand the authors are not being given
the data necessary to do this. Stealing the poster before it can be seen is
a new low.
If an organization with stature (and money) would publicly push to get this
information, it would presumably come forth. With no contamination or
inhalation aspects to confound the situation, it is indeed a unique and
nearly ideal situation for study. Instead, money continues to go to
studying A-bomb victims, miners, and Russian victims of chemical and
radiological contamination. It is outrageous that efforts to present this
work to a respected peer-reviewed journal are thwarted by the very
organizations that should be supporting them.
Ted Rockwell
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of Otto G. Raabe
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 1:37 PM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: The Ultimate Hormesis Paper
July 23, 2003
HPS Meeting, San Diego, CA
At the ongoing 48th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society here in
San Diego, I encountered poster paper P.78 entitled "The Beneficial Health
Effects of Chronic Radiation Experienced in the Incident of Co-60
Contaminated Apartments in Taiwan." This paper has 14 authors, all
associated with nuclear and radiation protection organizations in Taiwan
including one from the National Taiwan University. The lead authors are
W.L. Chen and Y.C. Luan, Nuclear Sciences and Technology Association, 4th
F, W. 245, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
About 20 years ago 180 apartment buildings comprising about 1700 apartments
were built using rebar containing Co-60 from a discarded source. It was
about 10 years before this incident was discovered. This paper discusses
the incidence of cancer and detectable genetic defects in about 10,000
people who lived from 9 to 20 years in these apartments. The highest
irradiated apartment had dose rates of about 0.5 Sv per year and the lowest
about 0.02 Sv per year. The paper describes dosimetric reconstruction
showing that the average total excess dose for the 10,000 people in the
study was about 0.4 Sv, while some had total doses as high as 6 Sv.
The authors compared the approximately 10,000 people in this study with
published cancer mortality statistics and reported an expected incidence of
cancer in these 10,000 people of about 217 cases of cancer during the study
period. The number of cases found was only 7. This demonstrated about a 97%
reduction in cancer incidence for people living in the high radiation
environment of these contaminated apartment. They found a similar reduction
in "genetic defects". The authors could not find any obvious confounding
factors associated with their study.
The abstract of this paper is found in a recent published HPS Journal
Supplement. You can write to the authors to get the whole paper.
I was told by the program committee that this paper was submitted as a
poster to the HPS meeting held in Tampa last year. In that meeting the
title was "The True Health Effects of Radiation Revealed in the Incident of
Co-60 Contamination in Taiwan." Unfortunately, someone stole the whole
poster an hour after it was mounted last year, so few people saw it.
The authors seem to indicate that their work is not being given the
attention it deserves. Many would like to disregard it as nonsencse.
Clearly, there should be a detailed independent scientific evaluation of
these data and a more complete study to verify or discredit the findings.
I'm not sure who would be willing to fund such a study.
Otto
*****************************************************
Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
Center for Health & the Environment (CHE)
(Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
University of California, Davis, CA 95616
E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
Phone:(530) 752-7754, FAX:(530) 758-6140
*****************************************************
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