Document Details

LONG-TERM RADIATION DAMAGE: EVALUATION OF LIFE-SPAN STUDIES

Location - DOE/NNSA NUCLEAR TESTING ARCHIVE Address - P.O. Box 98521 City - Las Vegas State - NV Zip - 89193-8521 Phone - (702)794-5106 Fax - (702)862-4240 Email - NTA@NV.DOE.GOV

REPORT

1966 Dec 31

Never classified

0070

NV0025514

RM5083TAB

RAND CORPORATION, THE

1994 Aug 26

2003 Sep 18

THIS MEMORANDUM IS AN EXPLORATORY REVIEW, FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF A STAT ISTICIAN, OF PART OF THE LITERATURE ON RADIATION LIFE SHORTENING. IT E XAMINES SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA ON RESPONSE OF ANIMALS TO WHOLE- BODY EXPOSURE TO A SINGLE ACUTE DOSE OF X-RAYS. IT EVALUATES INTERPRET ATIONS OF THE OBSERVED DATA AND SUMMARIZES WHAT SEEMS PERTINENT IN REG ARD TO LIFE SHORTENING. SOME OF THE METHODS THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED F OR ESTIMATING LIFE SHORTENING IN MAN FROM OBSERVED DATA ON EXPERIMENTA L ANIMALS ARE DISCUSSED. A DESCRIPTION IS GIVEN OF SOME OF THE MODELS THAT HAVE BEEN USED TO STUDY RADIATION INJURY AND RECOVERY. THERE IS A DISCUSSION OF THE DIFFERING POINTS OF VIEW IN THE GENERAL THEORIES OF THE AGING PROCESS WHICH ARE IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MO DELS FOR STUDYING RADIATION EFFECTS. FROM THE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED DAT A ON LIFE SHORTENING FROM A SINGLE ACUTE EXPOSURE, THERE ARE THREE CON CLUSIONS DEALING WITH LABORATORY MICE AND RATS: IF ADULT ANIMALS (AGE 3-4 MONTHS) ARE IRRADIATED, LIFE SHORTENING INCREASES ROUGHLY LINEARLY WITH DOSE. IF DOSE IS KEPT CONSTANT AT 500 ROENTGENS, ANIMALS EXPOSED AT AN EARLY AGE EXPERIENCE A GREATER LIFE SHORTENING THAN THOSE EXPOS ED LATER IN LIFE, WITH LIFE SHORTENING DECREASING ROUGHLY LINEARLY WIT H AGE AT TIME OF EXPOSURE. FOR ANIMALS OF AGE 4 MONTHS EXPOSED TO 500 ROENTGENS, LIFE SHORTENING IS APPROXIMATELY 0.3 TO 0.4 DAYS PER ROENTGENS. FOR A SINGLE ACUTE EXPOSURE, THE ESTIMATES OF LIFE SHORTENI NG IN MAN WHICH WERE OBTAINED BY EXTRAPOLATION FROM ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS RANGE FROM 7 TO 12 DAYS PER ROENTGEN.