Re: Background radiation and cancer

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Otto G. Raabe wrote:
> 
> At 01:31 PM 2/26/98 -0600, Paul L. wrote:
> >We have been involved in public meetings regarding radiation and
> cancer.
> >One group has stated that up to 15 percent of ALL human cancers are
> from
> >"background radiation" (their definition excludes ALL man-made
> sources -
> >including medical). Does anyone know the source for a quote such as
> this?
> >
> This kind of "estimate" is the result of using the ICRP linear model
> and
> risk factor for the public of 0.05 cancers per Sv. But these estimates
> are wrong because radiation dose response for cancer is unlikely to be
> linear down to background levels.
>
>                 *****************************************************
>                 Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
>                 [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
>                 Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
>                      (Street address: Old Davis Road)
>                 University of California, Davis, CA 95616
>                 Phone: 530-752-7754  FAX: 530-758-6140 [NEW AREA CODE]
>                 E-mail ograabe@ucdavis.edu

This is easy to prove. 

Just show how much greater the cancer rate is in the population with
background radiation doses that are 3 times the low dose population; or
smaller populations that are 5 - 10 times low-dose populations? 

Not :-)

(Uh oh, this is an 'ecological study'. :-)

Regards, Jim Muckerheide