LNT Debate -Reply

["ALDEN N TSCHAECHE" <XAT@inel.gov>]

Keith, please send me your email address so I can communicate with you without
bothering the other radsafers.  Thanks.  Al Tschaeche xat@inel.gov

*** Reply to note of 04/24/96 06:26
To: RADSAFE --INELMAIL RADSAFE

Subject: LNT Debate -Reply
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The following was obtained from electronic newspaper here at Sandia.
Any Comments!


NRC medical fellow Dr. Myron Pollycove is sparking debate with his
contention  that exposure to low levels of radiation is not harmful, and is
pushing for a  complete overhaul of almost 50 years of policy on radiation
regulation.  Pollycove and other like-minded health physicists assert there
is no  experimental evidence for a linear, no-threshold dose-response
relationship for radiation induced cancer in the low-dose, low-dose-rate
region.


Jamie Mallon  jmallo@sandia.gov
505-844-8287

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I wonder when Dr. Pollycove became a health physicist.  Only a couple of
years ago he was a nuclear medicine physician.

It is probably true that as we collect more data, we will be able to determine
the actual shape of the dose response curve at low dose rates.  If the
result is, indeed, an increase in dose limits (and it looks like it should
be), it
will also be interesting to see the resulting decrease in health physics
positions.  In these days of belt tightening, I suspect that many
organizations might decide that an increase in dose limits mean they need
to put less emphasis on radiation safety.

It does trouble me that many people assert that the limits should be raised
because "there is no experimental evidence for a linear, no-threshold
dose-response relationship for radiation induced cancer in the low-dose,
low-dose-rate region."  It is not sufficient to have no evidence of an effect;
rather one needs evidence of no effect.  Some people, such as Cohen,
base their argument for higher limits on such evidence.  But others seem
to be saying that in the absence of deterministic evidence of harm, we
should not protect against potential risk.

Keith Brown

The opinions expressed are my own only, not those of my employer.