title: Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the accuracy and scientific validity of the current very low risk factor for hereditary diseases in humans following exposures to ionizing radiation adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The value is based on experiments on mice due to reportedly absent effects in the Japanese atomic bomb (Abomb) survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  To review the published evidence for heritable effects after ionising radiation exposures particularly, but not restricted to, populations exposed to contamination from the Chernobyl accident and from atmospheric nuclear test fallout. To make a compilation of findings about early deaths, congenital malformations, Down's syndrome, cancer and other genetic effects observed in humans after the exposure of the parents. To also examine more closely the evidence from the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology and discuss its scientific validity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nearly all types of hereditary defects were found at doses as low as one to 10 mSv. We discuss the clash between the current risk model and these observations on the basis of biological mechanism and assumptions about linear relationships between dose and effect in neonatal and foetal epidemiology. The evidence supports a dose response relationship which is non-linear and is either biphasic or supralinear (hogs-back) and largely either saturates or falls above 10 mSv.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that the current risk model for heritable effects of radiation is unsafe. The dose response relationship is non-linear with the greatest effects at the lowest doses. Using Chernobyl data we derive an excess relative risk for all malformations of 1.0 per 10 mSv cumulative dose. The safety of the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology is argued to be both scientifically and philosophically questionable owing to errors in the choice of control groups, omission of internal exposure effects and assumptions about linear dose response.
authors.affiliation: University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Inge
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0094-6037
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schmitz-Feuerhake
authors.affiliation: Environmental Research SIA, Riga, Latvia.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0121-2243
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Busby
authors.affiliation: German Society for Radiation Protection, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1893-2247
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pflugbeil
keywords: Congenital malformation; Down´s syndrome; Environmental radioactivity; Internal radiation; Low level effects; Sex-ratio; Still birth