Radiation Doses of Hiroshima Survivors Confirmed

[Susan L Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Radiation Doses of Hiroshima Survivors Confirmed

Wed July 30, 2003 01:05 PM ET



LONDON (Reuters) - New research into the level of radiation that 

Hiroshima survivors were exposed to has confirmed that the figures used 

to calculate cancer risks from radiation are correct, scientists said 

Wednesday.



A week before the 58th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on 

Hiroshima, the publication of the research should ease fears about 

whether the survivors' radiation doses may have been underestimated.



Most estimates of cancer risk and safe levels of exposure to radiation 

sources ranging from nuclear plants to X-rays are based on data from 

survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so it is vital that the doses of 

exposure are correct.



"These findings provide, for the first time, clear measurement 

validation of the neutron doses to survivors in Hiroshima," Tore 

Trasume, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who headed the 

research team, said in a report in the science journal Nature.



Survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 were exposed to 

two types of radiation -- gamma rays and neutrons.



"The risks are pretty much what we thought they were," Mark Little, of 

Imperial College London who commentated on the research, said in an 

interview.



Scientists extrapolate from the data to determine how safe radiation is 

at low doses. Cancer risk is estimated by correlating the incidence of 

cancer in groups of survivors with the dose they received.



"So if you don't know the dose, or if it is uncertain, that feeds into 

uncertainties on the risk estimates," Little said.



"It as safe as we thought it was," he added.

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................





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