Originally published July 24 2005
Even in small doses, radiation can cause cancer, report says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Despite some scientists' claims that small doses of radiation are harmless (or, in some cases, beneficial), a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded from a report that any exposure to radiation increases the risk of contracting cancer, but SFGate.com reports that many doctors don't think this should put an end to nuclear medicine.
Even very low doses of radiation pose a risk of cancer over a person's lifetime, a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded.
It rejected some scientists' arguments that tiny doses are harmless or may in fact be beneficial.
The findings, disclosed in a report Wednesday, could influence the maximum radiation levels that are allowed at abandoned reactors and other nuclear sites and raises warnings about excessive exposure to radiation for medical purposes such as repeated whole-body CT scans.
"It is unlikely that there is a threshold (of radiation exposure) below which cancers are not induced," the scientists said.
Even common X-rays pose some risk of adverse health effects, the scientists found, although the panel said there was not enough information available to accurately estimate the cancer risk from X-rays.
Scientists for years have debated how extremely low doses of radiation affect human health.
Pro-nuclear advocates, as well as some independent scientists, have maintained that the current risk models for low-level radiation has produced more stringent requirements than is necessary to protect public health.
The academy's panel stood by the "linear, no threshold" model that generally is the acceptable approach to radiation risk assessment.
This approach assumes that the health risks from radiation exposure decline as the dose levels drop, but that each unit of radiation --- no matter how small --- is assumed to cause cancer.
The scientists estimated that one out of 100 people exposed to 100 millisievert of radiation over a lifetime probably would develop solid cancer or leukemia, and that half of those cases would be fatal.
People absorb about 3 millisievert of radiation annually from natural sources and 0.1 millisievert every time they get a chest X-ray.
Mitchell Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm, said the report "is a positive finding.
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