Re: BBC article on Radiation

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

I think there is a difference between saying the

low-level radiation posses no risk and that it is

beneficial.  I also expect that this will start a

flurry of e-mails, but it has been a slow day around

here.



I am sure if you check, you will find that the number

of centenarians is increasing in this country, or

others, without any changes in radiation levels. 

Willard Scott, the retired TV personality, used to

send out birthday cards to them all the time.  I would

also question the simpliest statement that radiation

protection standards are increasing the rate of

cancers. 

http://rex.nci.nih.gov/massmedia/backgrounders/mortality.htm



Only good epidemiological studies performed by

qualified epidemiologist, not those with regulatory

agendas one way or the other, should be evaluating the

low-level effects of radiation.  





--- Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@NOSC.MIL> wrote:



> I thought that this article might be of interest to

> the list.

> 

> Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)

> SSC-SD....

> 

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3554422.stm

> 

> 

> Low level radiation 'no danger'

> 

> The widely held view that even low levels of

> radiation damage health has no 

> basis in hard science, a leading expert has said.

> Professor Zbigniew Jaworowski, former chairman of a

> United Nations 

> committee on radiation effects, believes low levels

> may even be beneficial.

> He told the BBC Today programme: "Low levels of

> radiation are probably 

> essential for life itself."

> However, the National Radiological Protection Board

> rejected the claim.

> The standard measurement of radiation is set in

> terms of milliSieverts 

> (mSv) per year. In the 1920s, the maximum dose

> regarded as safe was 700mSv.

> By 1941, it was reduced to 70. By the 1990s, it

> became 20 for people 

> exposed to radiation as part of their job, and 1 mSv

> for the general 

> population.

> Some people believe the maximum dose should be lower

> still.

> Cancer protection

> Professor Jaworoski, now based at the Central

> Laboratory for Radiological 

> Protection in Warsaw, Poland, said the background

> level of radiation was 

> around 2.5mSv.

> However, in some parts of the world background

> levels were as high as 

> 700-800mSV.

> He said a study in the Iranian city of Ramsar had

> shown people routinely 

> exposed to 250mSv came to no harm.

> "There were many generations of people living in

> these houses, and there 

> was no evidence of any harm. One of the gentlemen

> living there was more 

> than 100 years old."

> Professor Jaworoski said the view that low levels of

> radiation were harmful 

> was little more than an "administrative assumption".

> His view was echoed by Lord Dick Taverne, chairman

> of the pressue group 

> Sense About Science.

> Writing in Prospect magazine, he said: "Far from

> safeguarding our health, 

> current safety standards will almost certainly

> increase the incidence of 

> cancer.

> "A low dose of radiation seems to stimulate DNA

> repair and the immune 

> system, so providing a measure of protection against

> cancer."

> Dr Michael Clarke, of the NRPB, said the scientific

> consensus was that low 

> level radiation probably did pose a small risk to

> health.

> "The consensus is that every little bit does a

> little bit of harm, and you 

> extrapolate from what you can see at high doses,

> down to low doses.

> "A small exposure gives you a very small risk. Maybe

> over the years more 

> science will show that DNA repair mechanisms are

> stimulated by low level 

> radiation, but it is not clear at the moment."

> However, Dr Clarke accepted that there was little

> hard evidence that low 

> radiation levels do damage health, but he said it

> was difficult to tease 

> out the effect from all the other potentially

> damaging factors.

> Story from BBC NEWS:

> 

> 





=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"We Americans have no commission from God to police the world"

Benjamin Harrison



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





		

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