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Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the accuracy and scientific validity of the current very low risk factor for hereditary diseases in humans following exposures to ionizing radiation adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Commission on Ra...

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Autores principales: Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge, Busby, Christopher, Pflugbeil, Sebastian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26791091
http://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2016001
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author Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge
Busby, Christopher
Pflugbeil, Sebastian
author_facet Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge
Busby, Christopher
Pflugbeil, Sebastian
author_sort Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To investigate the accuracy and scientific validity of the current very low risk factor for hereditary diseases in humans following exposures to ionizing radiation adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The value is based on experiments on mice due to reportedly absent effects in the Japanese atomic bomb (Abomb) survivors. METHODS: To review the published evidence for heritable effects after ionising radiation exposures particularly, but not restricted to, populations exposed to contamination from the Chernobyl accident and from atmospheric nuclear test fallout. To make a compilation of findings about early deaths, congenital malformations, Down’s syndrome, cancer and other genetic effects observed in humans after the exposure of the parents. To also examine more closely the evidence from the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology and discuss its scientific validity. RESULTS: Nearly all types of hereditary defects were found at doses as low as one to 10 mSv. We discuss the clash between the current risk model and these observations on the basis of biological mechanism and assumptions about linear relationships between dose and effect in neonatal and foetal epidemiology. The evidence supports a dose response relationship which is non-linear and is either biphasic or supralinear (hogs-back) and largely either saturates or falls above 10 mSv. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the current risk model for heritable effects of radiation is unsafe. The dose response relationship is non-linear with the greatest effects at the lowest doses. Using Chernobyl data we derive an excess relative risk for all malformations of 1.0 per 10 mSv cumulative dose. The safety of the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology is argued to be both scientifically and philosophically questionable owing to errors in the choice of control groups, omission of internal exposure effects and assumptions about linear dose response.
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spelling pubmed-48707602016-05-26 Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge Busby, Christopher Pflugbeil, Sebastian Environ Health Toxicol Review Article OBJECTIVES: To investigate the accuracy and scientific validity of the current very low risk factor for hereditary diseases in humans following exposures to ionizing radiation adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The value is based on experiments on mice due to reportedly absent effects in the Japanese atomic bomb (Abomb) survivors. METHODS: To review the published evidence for heritable effects after ionising radiation exposures particularly, but not restricted to, populations exposed to contamination from the Chernobyl accident and from atmospheric nuclear test fallout. To make a compilation of findings about early deaths, congenital malformations, Down’s syndrome, cancer and other genetic effects observed in humans after the exposure of the parents. To also examine more closely the evidence from the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology and discuss its scientific validity. RESULTS: Nearly all types of hereditary defects were found at doses as low as one to 10 mSv. We discuss the clash between the current risk model and these observations on the basis of biological mechanism and assumptions about linear relationships between dose and effect in neonatal and foetal epidemiology. The evidence supports a dose response relationship which is non-linear and is either biphasic or supralinear (hogs-back) and largely either saturates or falls above 10 mSv. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the current risk model for heritable effects of radiation is unsafe. The dose response relationship is non-linear with the greatest effects at the lowest doses. Using Chernobyl data we derive an excess relative risk for all malformations of 1.0 per 10 mSv cumulative dose. The safety of the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology is argued to be both scientifically and philosophically questionable owing to errors in the choice of control groups, omission of internal exposure effects and assumptions about linear dose response. The Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology 2016-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4870760/ /pubmed/26791091 http://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2016001 Text en Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Environmental Health and Toxicology This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge
Busby, Christopher
Pflugbeil, Sebastian
Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title_full Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title_fullStr Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title_full_unstemmed Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title_short Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
title_sort genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26791091
http://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2016001
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