title: Role of shielding in modulating the effects of solar particle events: Monte Carlo calculation of absorbed dose and DNA complex lesions in different organs.
abstract: Distributions of absorbed dose and DNA clustered damage yields in various organs and tissues following the October 1989 solar particle event (SPE) were calculated by coupling the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code with two anthropomorphic phantoms (a mathematical model and a voxel model), with the main aim of quantifying the role of the shielding features in modulating organ doses. The phantoms, which were assumed to be in deep space, were inserted into a shielding box of variable thickness and material and were irradiated with the proton spectra of the October 1989 event. Average numbers of DNA lesions per cell in different organs were calculated by adopting a technique already tested in previous works, consisting of integrating into "condensed-history" Monte Carlo transport codes--such as FLUKA--yields of radiobiological damage, either calculated with "event-by-event" track structure simulations, or taken from experimental works available in the literature. More specifically, the yields of "Complex Lesions" (or "CL", defined and calculated as a clustered DNA damage in a previous work) per unit dose and DNA mass (CL Gy-1 Da-1) due to the various beam components, including those derived from nuclear interactions with the shielding and the human body, were integrated in FLUKA. This provided spatial distributions of CL/cell yields in different organs, as well as distributions of absorbed doses. The contributions of primary protons and secondary hadrons were calculated separately, and the simulations were repeated for values of Al shielding thickness ranging between 1 and 20 g/cm2. Slight differences were found between the two phantom types. Skin and eye lenses were found to receive larger doses with respect to internal organs; however, shielding was more effective for skin and lenses. Secondary particles arising from nuclear interactions were found to have a minor role, although their relative contribution was found to be larger for the Complex Lesions than for the absorbed dose, due to their higher LET and thus higher biological effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica Nucleare e Teorica, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy. francesca.ballarini@mi.infn.it
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ballarini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biaggi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Biaggi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ottolenghi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Panzarasa
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Paretzke
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pelliccioni
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scannicchio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zankl
mesh_terms: D018480:Astronauts; D004247:DNA / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004249:DNA Damage; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000528:radiation effects; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D012867:Skin / Q000528:radiation effects; D019445:Solar Activity; D014781:Viscera / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D004247:DNA