Stochastic threshold, editorial by J.A.Dennis in Rad ProtDosimetry, 63(2), 1996, pp83-85

[schadt@interserv.com]

Rad Safers,  I don't know how many of you subscribe to and read 
the journal called Radiation Protection Dosimetry, but there was 
a particularly interesting editorial in the latest issue (Is 
There a Threshold? by J.A. Dennis) and it contained a poignant 
quotation from an editorial by P. H. Abelson published in 
Science, 265, 1507 (1994) -- 

"The current mode of extrapolating high dose to low dose effects 
is erroneous for both chemicals and radiation. Safe levels of 
exposure exist. The public has been needlessly frightened and 
deceived, and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted. A 
hard-headed rapid examination of the phenomena occurring at low 
exposures should have a high priority."

	The editorial by Dennis then states, "This editorial was 
followed some weeks later by the publication of a series of 
supporting letters in the same journal.  However, it was notable 
that most of these referred to chemicals and curiously, given the 
strength of feeling and the existing evidence, hardly any of the 
letters contested the view in relation to radiation.

   I recommend this editorial to those of you who are really into 
the LNT thread on RadSafe.


Sincerely,

Bill Schadt a.k.a. Mr. QUEST
Radiation Technology, Inc.
P.O. Box 10457
Silver Spring, MD 20914-0457
              (301) 622-9644 (voice)
              (301) 622-1582 (fax)
              info@chammp.com (email)