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Registered Member #1321
Joined: Sat Feb 16 2008, 03:22AM
Location:
Posts: 843
I could be wrong, but how I think you have to look at it, is like this:
There is no "safe" level of radiation; i.e., there is no "threshold". We all have some baseline cancer risk that depends in part upon our diet, genetics, and the environmental factors that we can generally do little or nothing about, e.g., cosmic rays, Carbon-14, Potassium-40, radon, etc.
Any incremental increase in the environmental radiation we're exposed to causes our risk of cancer to go up incrementally as well. So in a sense we've already been damaged by Fukushima, just not very much at this point, for most of us, at least.
Bored Chemist wrote ...
"On the other hand, as far as I know, we have no use whatsoever for the high energy betas of the radiopoisons...strontium accumulating in our bones, iodine in our thyroids and cesium in muscle tissue or wherever it goes." True, but we still have repair mechanisms that let us cope with it. Whether you thank God or evolution for this is a matter of conjecture, but the fact is that we are quite tolerant. This may reflect the fact that we do need two beta emitters- potassium and carbon, and we have always had to put up with other radioisotopes in our environment. (BTW, we can eat things to get vit D)
Registered Member #1321
Joined: Sat Feb 16 2008, 03:22AM
Location:
Posts: 843
The more I look into it, the more complicated it seems. I just read some abstracts of some studies suggesting that there is some kind of threshold or possibly an hormetic effect for low levels of radiation.
Some studies show a statistically significant risk reduction (for not only cancer, but death from other diseases as well) for people living at higher altitudes.
Other studies seem to show a possible hormetic effect from radon gas, with regard to lung cancer.
Perhaps the effect of low-dose radiation on any particular person depends on their diet, general health, age, duration of exposure, etc.
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Is it time to buy a Geiger counter yet?
