Biological Effects -Reply

[Michael S Ford <MFORD@pantex.com>]

Try the BELLE website (Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures)

http://www.belleonline.com

If you're looking for information on the various radiation injury
syndromes (e.g., hemopoietic, GI, CNS) this wouldn't be the place to
look.  Summary follows:

"What Is BELLE

In May 1990, a group of scientists representing several federal
agencies, the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and
Pharmacology, the private sector, and academia met to develop a
strategy to encourage the assessment of the biological effects of low
level exposures (BELLE) to chemical agents and radioactivity. The
meeting was convened because of the recognition that most human
exposures to chemical and physical agents are at relatively low
levels, yet most toxicological studies assessing potential human
health effects involve exposures to quite high levels, often orders of
magnitude greater than actual human exposures. Consequently,
risks at low levels are estimated by various means, frequently
utilizing assumptions about which there may be considerable
uncertainty.

The (BELLE) Advisory Committee is committed to the enhanced
understanding of low-dose responses of all types, whether of an
expected nature (e.g., linear, sublinear) or of a so-called paradoxical
nature. Paradoxical dose-response relationships might include
U-shaped dose-response curves, hormesis, and, in some restrictive
sense, biphasic dose-response curves. Although there are many
scattered reports of such paradoxical responses in the biomedical
literature, these have not generally been rigorously assessed, nor
have the underlying mechanisms been adequately identified.
Laboratory and regulatory scientists have tended to dismiss these
paradoxical responses as anomalies inconsistent with conventional
scientific paradigms.

The focus of BELLE encompasses dose-response relationships to
toxic agents, pharmaceuticals, and natural products over wide
dosage ranges in in vitro , and in vivo systems, including human
populations. While a principal emphasis of BELLE is to promote the
scientific understanding of low-level effects (especially seemingly
paradoxical effects), the initial goal of BELLE is the scientific
evaluation of the existing literature and of ways to improve research
and assessment methods."

v/r
Michael
mford@pantex.com

>>> "Krzesniak, Michael F" wrote on Tue 23 Mar 99  7:24 >>>

Radsafe:

I am looking for a good website for the biological effects of ionizing
radiation.  I am sure it was on radsafe before but I did not save it,
and a
quick search of the radsafe archives didn't help either.

Thanks
Michael Krzesniak
NAVSURFWARCENDIV
Code 6051, B-3059
Crane IN 47525-5001

812/854-6086
krzesniak@atd.crane.navy.mil

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