Radiation may have positive effects on health: study

University of Toronto News ^ | 1-28-05 | Karen Kelly

[Cornpone]

"You may be right, but the newsworthyness of the article is in the possible paradigm shift."

I don't question the newsworthiness of the article. Thanks for posting it. I'm simply suggesting that there really may be no paradigm shift since the benefits appear to accrue only to small mammels and those that are deprived of natural sources of radiation to start with. Regards.

[beavus]

I thought then that the ALARA principal was a politically correct position that was counter to any meaningful scientific knowledge, and that it's implementation was needlessly strangling the nuclear industry.

Because of the low radiation levels people are exposed to today, there really isn't substantial evidence to support the extrapolation the modern context. The best data are still dribbling in from Hiroshima.

But, in the absence of evidence, what should we presume? Primum non nocere.

[beavus]

there really may be no paradigm shift

The notion that low levels of radiation may be beneficial to ANY animals is a paradigm shift. Didn't your high school social studies teacher tell you? Radiation is EVIL.

[punster]

"What's the NRC's problem with hormesis?"

It is not politically correct, to consider it in establishing public policy.

[fella]

Fr some reason this makes me think of Randy Newman's song "Let's Drop the Big One Now".

[Tribune7]

I think a couple of survivors of the atomic bombings lived to 120.

[punster]

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"But if there truly is such a compensation, then doesn't that demonstrate that low levels of radiation are beneficial to at least one type of mammal? It is currently presumed that less radiation exposure is always better. This study seems to provide evidence to suggest that is not a universally valid claim."
Your point is well taken. However, my point is the perceived benefits are to a species that receives very little radiation to start with. Most mammals are daily exposed, and have adapted to, radiation from the sun. The voles spend most of their time in darkness. By the same token, I suppose blind creatures that live in caves, such as certain fish and insects, would benefit from exposure to radiation. They would either develop the ability to see or perish.

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You have to remember, there is exposure from the K-40, C-14 and even traces of radium that are naturally in the body. There is also exposure from radon and radon progeny, which are released from the soil. Finally there is exposure from the radium and radium progeny, uranium and uranium progeny, thorium and thorium progeny, and K-40 in the soil and rocks.

What is fun, is to prove to the anti-nukes they are naturally radioactive.

[Cornpone]

"DNA damage associated with UV light is qualitatively different than ionizing radiation damage, primarily thymine dimer formation. are you hypothesizing that this species has different responses to ionizing radiation as well?"

Sorry, stepped away for dinner with my family. No. I'm hypothesizing that after offering my ill-informed, layman's view on the issue that I should drop out of this debate and leave it to those who really know what they're talking about. Just offered my little two cents worth. But you never know, sometimes out of the mouths of babes...as for what I was taught in high school beavis, they really didn't know that much back then. The Hiroshima results were still being analyzed. Freep on.

[wizr]

I'm definitely solar powered. Sunshine gets my heart started.

[Cornpone]

Hi Guys, I will add one more observation from an ill-formed layman. I did a little more research on voles. The average life span is only about a month or two at most. That means extended life is measured in days or maybe even hours. To me that would seem to indicate the benefits of radiation exposure can't really be measured against the long term effects of continuted exposure since they don't live long enough to realize significant long term effects. I suspect the results could represent something like the short term benefits of getting a sun tan.

"Mortality and Longevity: Patterns of mortality apparently vary among meadow vole populations. According to Banfield [4] the average meadow vole lifespan is less than 1 month because of high nestling and juvenile mortality. The average time that adults are recapturable in a given habitat is about 2 months, suggesting that the average extended lifespan (i.e. how much time adult meadow voles have left) is about 2 months, not figuring in emigration [4]. Getz [23] reported mortality of 88 percent for the first 30 days after birth. Golley [25] reported that postnestling juveniles had the highest mortality rate (61%), followed by young adults (58%) and older age groups (53%). He estimated that nestlings had the lowest mortality rate (50%). Estimated mean longevity ranges from 2 to 3 months to 10 to 16 months [48]. Banfield [4] reported that the maximum lifespan in the wild is 16 months, and Johnson and Johnson [31] stated that few voles live more than 2 years."

[beavus]

What we need is a United Nations mandate to remove all radioactive potassium and carbon from the environment. No cost is too great for this pressing environmental emergency.

[beavus]

Good point.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bttt!

[nuke rocketeer]

Accepted conventional wisdom states that ALL radiation exposure is bad. For the NRC to accept hormesis they would have to reject 60 years of preaching. They have even forbidden nuke plant training departments from formally mentioning the subject. Also, the entire anti-nuke crowd accepts current teaching on exposure as gospel and would go on a jihad against anyone who preaches this heresy.

[MRMEAN]

http://www.accesstoenergy.com/view/ate/s41p900.htm

[Domestic Church]

Hormetic response ping!

[Myrddin]

Hormetic response ping!

The self repair capability in a biological system will simply be stimulated by low level inputs. As long as it isn't an overwhelming level of damage. The benefit of low level stimulation is analogous to keeping engine oil warm in an emergency generator. The mechanism is primed and ready to operate on short notice.

[Domestic Church]

Nanotechnology in medicine...

[punster]

"Hi Guys, I will add one more observation from an ill-formed layman. I did a little more research on voles. The average life span is only about a month or two at most. That means extended life is measured in days or maybe even hours. To me that would seem to indicate the benefits of radiation exposure can't really be measured against the long term effects of continuted exposure since they don't live long enough to realize significant long term effects. I suspect the results could represent something like the short term benefits of getting a sun tan."

That is a definite problem with making inferences from animal research. The much shorter life spans don't allow for really long term observation of effects.

[Cornpone]

Like I said, I'm no scientist. I'm an IT guy and I have studied just enough statistics to make me dangerous and information theory to make me deadly. I've seen enough examples of what works in the lab fails in the world. Just gives me reason to question these kinds of studies. I don't say the results aren't true, I just question the interpretations...And I certainly don't know the answers in this area.