Detecting the health risks of radiation.
Radiation can cause both non-stochastic (cell-killing) effects, leading to burns, epilation, immune system damage and lens opacities, and mutational or stochastic effects due to low dose damage to single cells. If the latter are followed by clone formation or fertilization, the mutants are not recognized by the immune system, and there is no competing cause of death, cancer or leukaemia can result. These effects did not become public knowledge until after the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Subsequent analysis of the data on A-bomb survivors suggests, contrary to official views, that the immune system has a complex role in the aetiology of cancer and leukaemia, and that the A-bomb survivors were unusually resistant to the harmful effects of the bombings. These findings require the re-evaluation of the effects of low-level radiation, which has increased with the growth of the nuclear industry, both civil and military.
Stewart
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Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000528:radiation effects; D007223:Infant; D007953:Leukemia, Radiation-Induced / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D011210:Power Plants; D011247:Pregnancy; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing