Biological Effects of LLIR and Normal Oxidative Damage: The Same or Different?
Epidemiology alone is insufficient to estimate risks associated with low-level ionizing radiation (LLIR) with confidence. Yet much of the concern in mitigating environmental effects of the ''cold war legacy'' of radiation contamination involves LLIR. For example, a question arises as to how clean a contaminated site needs to be in order to be considered adequately restored. The answer depends in part on the risk associated with residual contamination. Incorporation of radiobiological principles offers policy makers a means to improve LLIR risk assessment. However, these principles must be established under realistic exposure conditions to be defensible. Typically in vitro radiobiological experimentation is conducted under normal atmospheric conditions. The oxygen content of the atmosphere, which exceeds the physiological oxygen concentration by several fold, may affect the results of radiation experiments. Therefore it is the goal of this newly funded project to examine gene tic damage, and cellular responses to that damage, induced by LLIR under physiological O2. One important question to be answered: Does LLIR produce biological effects that are fundamentally different from those caused by endogenous oxidative damage? If it does, then there is a firm rationale for radiation protection concepts that seek to limit radiation exposure to the lowest reasonably achievable level. Alternatively, genetic damage induced by LLIR may be essentially the same as endogenous oxidative damage. If so, then LLIR would impose a small, and often temporary, increase in the overall burden of genetic damage.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 833474
- Report Number(s):
- EMSP-69938-2000; R&D Project: EMSP 69938; TRN: US200430%%1522
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGANISMS AND BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CONTAMINATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EPIDEMIOLOGY
GENES
GENETICS
IN VITRO
IONIZING RADIATIONS
OXYGEN
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIATIONS
RISK ASSESSMENT