Different Approach to Evaluating Health Effects from Radiation Exposure

摘要

Absorbed dose D is shown to be a composite variable, the product of the fraction of cells hit (I/sub H/) and the mean 'dose' (hit size) /ovr z/ to those cells. D is suitable for use with high level (HLE) exposure to radiation and its resulting acute organ effects because, since I/sub H/ = 1.0, D approximates closely enough the mean energy density in the cell as well as in the organ. However, with low-level exposure (LLE) to radiation and its consequent probability of cancer induction from a single cell, stochastic delivery of energy to cells results in a wide distribution of hit sizes z, and the expected mean value, /ovr z/, is constant with exposure. Thus, with LLE, only I/sub H/ varies with D so that the apparent proportionality between 'dose' and the fraction of cells transformed is misleading. This proportionality therefore does not mean that any (cell) dose, no matter how small, can be lethal. Rather, it means that, in the exposure of a population of individual organisms consisting of the constituent relevant cells, there is a small probabililty of particle-cell interactions which transfer energy. The probability of a cell transforming and initiating a cancer can only be greater than zero if the hit size 'dose of energy' to the cell is large enough. Otherwise stated, if the 'dose' is defined at the proper level of biological organization, namely, the cell and not the organ, only a large dose z to that cell is effective. The above precepts are utilized to develop a drastically different approach to evaluation oif risk from LLE, that holds promise of obviating any requirement for the components of the present system: absorbed organ dose, LET, a standard radiation, REB(Q), dose equivalent and rem. 12 refs., 11 figs. (ERA citation 13:034965)