The beneficial health effects of low-level radiation...and why
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rockville, MD 20852 (United States)
The increased incidence of cancer observed during the fifties in atomic bomb survivors that received high-level radiation was consistent with our knowledge of radiochemistry and the newly discovered molecular structure of DNA. The damage to DNA and the risk of cancer were both proportional to radiation dose. Since some mutations of DNA initiated cellular changes that could be promoted and induce cancer, it was reasonable in the absence of low-level data, to postulate a linear, no threshold model as an upper limit to risk of cancer induction. Though epidemiologic surveys in the United States, Brazil, India, and China consistently observed less mortality and less cancer in high background populations than in low background populations, these Findings were discounted because of lack of individual dosimetry, strict controls, unreliable public health data, and inadequate consideration of confounding factors. The threshold of 10 Gy (1000 rad) for development of bone cancer in the radium dial painters was simply an anomaly. Recently, however, the beneficial health effects of decreased mortality and decreased cancer in human populations exposed to low-level radiation have been observed in large populations with careful consideration of controls and high statistical power: US-Japan Atomic Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), East Urals Population Study, U.S. Nuclear Shipyard Worker Studies, University of Pittsburgh Residential Radon Study, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Fluoroscope Study. The UNSCEAR 1994 Report and recent studies provide extensive documentation of many cellular preventive and repair mechanisms, including the immune system, that are stimulated by low dose radiation. Nevertheless, a consequent positive health effect is still considered implausible, 'As to the biological plausibility of a radiation-induced adaptive response, it is recognized that the effectiveness of DNA repair in mammalian cells is not absolute...An important question, therefore, is to judge the balance between stimulated cellular repair and residual damage'. This reasoning focuses upon the DNA mutations produced by radiation-induced free radicals and ignores the normal presence of a very high background of flee radical DNA damage unrelated to radiation. The following is an outline of the biologic system that controls the enormous burden of relentless endogenous DNA damage. This model, consistent with published data, was developed collaboratively with Ludwig E. Feinendegen, M.D. Every day endogenous human metabolism of oxygen produces an average of about 10{sup 6} DNA alterations in each cell of our body. During youth and middle age these are prevented, repaired, and removed effectively so that in a lifetime, an average of only about 1 fixed DNA damage (for brevity, 'mutation')/cell/d accumulates and cancer occurs infrequently. A tenfold increase of low LET background radiation from 0.1 cGy/y to 1.0 cGy/y increases radiation-induced DNA damage from an average of about 5x10{sup 3} to 5x10{sup 2} DNA alterations/cell/d and the ratio of daily endogenous to radiation-induced double strand breaks decreases from about 10{sup 3}:1 to 10{sup 2}:1. However, this high background simultaneously stimulates the antimutagenic DNA damage-control system of antioxidant prevention, enzymatic repair, and apoptotic and immunologic removal of DNA damage by about 20%. The resulting decrease of mutations to about 0.8 mutations/cell/d is associated with the decreased cancer mortality and increased longevity seen in public, occupational, and medical cohort populations exposed to increased low-dose radiation. High dose radiation, however, exceeds the homeostatic capacity of the antimutagenic system. A single high dose of 200 cGy delivered in one minute adds only 4000 DNA alterations to the 10{sup 6} DNA alterations each cell receives daily. During one minute the DNA damage-control system ordinarily copes efficiently with a numerically insignificant 4x10{sup -6} background radiation-induced alterations compared to about 700 endogenous DNA alterations, a ratio of 6x10{sup -9}. However, during this minute a high dose of 200 cGy increases the ratio of radiation to endogenous induced alterations from 6x10{sup -9} to 6, i.e., by a factor of 10{sup 9} that overwhelms the antimutagenic DNA damage-control system. Reduced DNA damage-control of the alterations occurring in that minute, as well as of the proximal continuous very high background of endogenous metabolic DNA damage, acutely increases mutations and the risk of developing cancer. early age may result from genetic impairment of DNA damage-control. Similarly, high-dose radiation impairment of the cell's homeostatic antimutagenic system also increases the risk of developing cancer. The health effects of radiation are not invariably negative in linear proportion to the relatively small amounts of radiation-induced DNA damage, These health effects are determined by the biphasic dose response to low- and high-dose radiation of preventive and repair cell functions that include the homeostatic DNA damage-control system.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 23142315
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Global'99: International Conference on Future Nuclear Systems - Nuclear Technology - Bridging the Millennia, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 29 Aug - 3 Sep 1999; Other Information: Country of input: France; available from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (US)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The Adaptive Response in p53 Cancer Prone Mice: Loss of heterozygosity and Genomic Instability
Low doses and non-targeted effects in environmental radiation protection; where are we now and where should we go?
Related Subjects
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGANISMS AND BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BACKGROUND RADIATION
CONTROL SYSTEMS
DIAL PAINTERS
DNA
DNA REPAIR
MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
MORTALITY
MUTATIONS
NEOPLASMS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADIOCHEMISTRY
RADIUM
RADON
STRAND BREAKS
UNSCEAR