RE: Gofman letter -Reply

["Karam, Andrew" <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>]

I have skimmed a copy of the paper "The oncogenic transforming potential of
the passage of single alpha particles through mammalian cell nuclei"
(Miller, et all, PNAS, January, 1999).  The conclusion (from the abstract)
is that 

"...the measured oncogenicity from exactly one alpha particle was
significantly lower than for a Poisson-distributed mean of one alpha
particles, implying that cells traversed by multiple alpha particles
contribute most of the risk.  If this result applies generally,
extrapolation from high-level radon risks (involving cellular traversal by
multiple alpha particles) may overestimate low-level (involving only single
alpha particles) radon risks."

In addition, one of the conclusions is that:

"Nuclear traversal by exactly one alpha particle is not only significantly
less effective than traversal by an average of one alpha particle but also
is not significantly more effective than a zero-dose (sham) irradiation."

This paper is available as a pdf download from the NAS site.  Although I
don't have the WWW address readily available, it was recently posted to
Radsafe.

Andy
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