likely no safe level of exposure to radiation
- From: zwalanga@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 29 Jun 2005 16:13:21 -0700
"The health risks - particularly the development of solid cancers in
organs - rise proportionally with exposure."
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/06/29/radiation-risks050629.html
Low-dose radiation poses small cancer risk: report
Last Updated Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:13:43 EDT
CBC News
There is likely no such thing as a safe level of exposure to radiation,
although cancer is rarely induced by low doses, a panel of U.S.
scientists said Wednesday.
"The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of
exposure below which low levels of ionized radiation can be
demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial," said Richard Monson, the
panel's chair and a professor of epidemiology at Harvard's School of
Public Health.
Most people are exposed to less than 100 millisieverts of radiation
over their lives, the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays.
"The health risks - particularly the development of solid cancers in
organs - rise proportionally with exposure."
The panel's report addresses amounts of radiation from medical
treatments. The findings are expected to affect government safety
recommendations in the U.S.
A low dose of 100 millisieverts of radiation - the equivalent of 10
chest X-rays - is expected to cause solid cancer or leukemia in one
out of 100 people over a lifetime, the report said. About half of those
cases could be fatal.
The panel's report updates research based largely on survivors of the
1945 atomic bomb attacks in Japan.
While medical radiation is often appropriate, "exposure to any
unnecessary radiation should be avoided," Monson told a news
conference. "And what is unnecessary is up to an individual."
Natural sources of radiation such as gamma rays from space and radon in
the environment account for about 82 per cent of our exposure, the
report said.
More research is needed on those who receive frequent doses such as
full-body CT scans, and on children who get X-rays or radiation
treatment for cancer, the panel said.
Research on more than 400,000 nuclear industry workers found they had a
10 per cent higher risk of death from cancer, according to a related
report released Wednesday by the International Agency for Research on
Cancer in France.
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