The Low Dose Dilemma

Gy. J. Köteles

“Frédéric Joliot-Curie” National Research Institute for Radiobiology and Radiohygiene, Budapest, Hungary

CEJOEM 1997, Vol.3. No.4.:342

The assessment of health hazards of low dose and low dose rate radiations is usually performed by epidemiological surveys of the involved population. It is getting more and more obvious, however, that the linear extrapolation from data obtained at high dose range might be misleading. Accordingly, the scientific community is attaching again great importance to the experimental approaches to get more precise information on the risk and development of stochastic radiation effects.     Using the cytokinesis-blocked culturing of human lymphocytes, data could be obtained for different reactions at low and at high doses. The frequency curves of the individual increments of micronuclei following in vitro X-irradiations demonstrated considerable differences in type and shape of the probability distribution.

| Vol.3. No.4. | Back | Full Text Review