Genetic risks from radiation: recent assessments by the BEIR and UNSCEAR Committees and suggestions as to how future research can improve such estimates

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5789091

Selby, P. B.

Recently two widely-recognized committees, namely the UNSCEAR and BEIR Committees, have reevaluated their estimates of genetic risks from radiation. Their estimates for gene mutations are based on two different approaches, one being the doubling-dose approach and the other being a new direct approach based on an empirical determination of the amount of dominant induced damage in the skeletons of mice in the first generation following irradiation. The estimates made by these committees are in reasonably good agreement and suggest that the genetic risks from present exposures resulting from nuclear power production are small. There is room for much improvement in the reliability of the risk estimates. The relatively new approach of measuring the amount of induced damage to the mouse skeleton shows great promise of improving knowledge about how changes in the mutation frequency affect the incidence of genetic disorders. Such findings may have considerable influence on genetic risk estimates for radiation and on the development of risk estimates for other less-well-understood environmental mutagens.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5789091
• Report Number(s): CONF-790977-1; TRN: 79-021631
• Resource Relation: Conference: Conference on health effects of energy production, Ontario, Canada, 12 Sep 1979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
DOMINANT MUTATIONS
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
HUMAN POPULATIONS
LOW DOSE IRRADIATION
MUTAGENESIS
MAN
GENETIC RADIATION EFFECTS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SKELETON
GENETICALLY SIGNIFICANT DOSE
DOSE RATES
MICE
MUTATION FREQUENCY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RECOMMENDATIONS
UNSCEAR
US ORGANIZATIONS
ANIMALS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOLOGICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
BODY
DOSES
GENETIC EFFECTS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
IRRADIATION
MAMMALS
MUTATIONS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ORGANS
POPULATIONS
POWER PLANTS
PRIMATES
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RODENTS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
UNITED NATIONS
VERTEBRATES
WASTES
560151* - Radiation Effects on Animals- Man
560152 - Radiation Effects on Animals- Animals