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RSH
> Documents: Confs & Proceedings > RSH SymposiumNov 2000 > Mitchel
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The Biological Imperative: Low-Dose Radiation Stimulation Ron Mitchel, Ph.D., and Doug Boreham, Ph.D. November 15, 2000 |
Current practices for the management of ionizing radiation
exposure, either for the purposes of radiation protection or for medical therapy, rely on
long held assumptions that all exposures create risk in the exposed cells, and that the
effects are linearly proportional to dose, without a threshold. A wealth of experimental
evidence indicates that these basic assumptions break down at low doses and dose rates,
seriously challenging current radiation protection practices as well as identifying
biological responses that can be exploited for medical therapy. Until recently, that
evidence tended to be dismissed as phenomenology, and was not considered to be a serious
challenge to the established assumptions. However, recent advances in molecular and
cellular biology have placed such observations on a secure scientific footing. This tutorial will review the biology of low dose/low dose rate ionizing radiation exposure and provide examples of the consequences in cells and in animals. Our current understanding of radiobiology, and the actual experimental observations, will be tested against the widely held assumptions about radiation exposure. Reference
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Health Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton ON |
RSH > Documents: Confs & Proceedings > RSH SymposiumNov 2000 > Mitchel
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