RE: Cancer Rates and Risks

["Heinmiller, Bruce" <heinmillerb@aecl.ca>]

The NCI article on ionizing radiation contains the following statement:  "In
general, the breast, thyroid, and bone marrow are most sensitive to the
effects of ionizing radiation."  With regard to breast tissue, this
statement appears to be outdated.  And with regard to thyroid, I believe the
statement may be a misinterpretation of this specific tissue's affinity for
iodine, an attribute which may result in the tissue receiving a very high
dose if the iodine it absorbs happens to be something other than I-127.  If
you normalize to energy absorbed, rather than dose, the thyroid is, even on
the basis of an assigned weighting factor of 0.05, about the most
radiosensitive tissue for somatic stochastic effects, but then, on this
basis, the (red) bone marrow and breast are not.  Notwithstanding the word
"the" not appearing before "most", in what context might the above quoted
statement from the NCI article not be incorrect?  Most politically
sensitive?

Bruce Heinmiller CHP
heinmillerb@aecl.ca

> ----------
> From: 	Strom, Daniel J[SMTP:daniel.j.strom@pnl.gov]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	Friday, November 19, 1999 5:34 PM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	Cancer Rates and Risks
> 
> RADSAFERS,
> 
> I found the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Rates and Risks (1996)
> http://rex.nci.nih.gov/NCI_Pub_Interface/raterisk/index.html to be
> fascinating
> reading, with articles on ionizing radiation (John Boice) and lung cancer
> (Jay
> Lubin).  There are geographic variations in incidence rates of various
> cancers
> by factors of hundreds, and 10-fold variations are common.  Since cancers
> are
> multi-factorial diseases, it isn't just background radiation at work...
> 
> There's plenty more to explore at the NCI site http://rex.nci.nih.gov/
> 
> - Dan Strom
> 
> The opinions expressed above, if any, are mine alone and have not been
> reviewed
> or approved by Battelle, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or the
> U.S.
> Department of Energy.
> 
> Daniel J. Strom, Ph.D., CHP
> Risk Analysis & Health Protection Group, Environmental Technology
> Division,
> Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
> Mail Stop K3-56, PO BOX 999, Richland, Washington 99352-0999 USA
> Telephone (509) 375-2626 FAX (509) 375-2019 mailto:daniel.j.strom@pnl.gov
> Brief Resume: http://www.pnl.gov/bayesian/strom/strombio.htm
> Pagemaster for  http://www.pnl.gov/bayesian   http://qecc.pnl.gov
> http://bidug.pnl.gov
> 
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