Carcinogenesis and low-level ionizing radiation with special reference to lung cancer and exposure to radon daughters
The quantitative estimation of the carcinogenic risk of low-dose, high-LET radiation in the case of exposure to radon daughters and lung-cancer is subject to numerous uncertainties. The greatest of these concerns the parametric values of the dose-response curve. We lack knowledge and an understanding of the dosimetry and the distribution of aggregates of radioactivity that remain localized as hot spots in specific regions of the lungs and the influence on greater or lesser risk of lung cancer per average lung dose than uniformly deposited radiation (NRC76). We have only a limited understanding of the response to exposure to high-LET radiations, such as alpha particles, for which linear risk estimates for low doses are less likely to overestimate the risk, and may, in fact, underestimate the risk (BEIR80). Other uncertainties include the length of the latency period, the RBE for alpha radiation relative to gamma radiation, the period during which the radiation risk is expressed, the risk projection model used - whether absolute or relative - for projecting risk beyond the period of observation, the effect of dose rate and protraction of dose, and the influence of differences in the natural incidence of lung cancer in different populations. In addition, uncertainties are introduced by the biological and life-style risk characteristics of humans, for example, the effect of sex, the effect of age at the time of irradiation and at the time of appearance of the cancer, the influence of length of observation or follow-up of the study populations, and the influence of perhaps the most important confounding bias, cigarette-smoking. The collective influence of these uncertainties is such as to deny great credibility to any estimate of human lung cancer risk and other cancer risk that can be made for low-dose, high-LET radon daughter radiation exposure.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA); California Univ., San Francisco (USA). Dept. of Radiology
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 5586245
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-14772-Rev.; CONF-820640-2-Rev.; ON: DE84004238
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: IEEE Computer Society conference, Las Vegas, NV, USA, 14 Jun 1982
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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