Effect of Dose Rate in Altering Immunohematologic Factors in Mammals

摘要

There is an urgent need to confirm the comparative effectiveness of chronic low level radiation in an experimental model in order to generate data that will enable regulatory agencies to establish standards for permissible exposures. Data from our initial study using exposure rates of 0.7 R/day and 0.33 R/day compared to higher rates (1, 2, 4 and 11 R/day) have suggested that only at the higher exposure rates and from cumulative exposures over 1000 R can any effects on the immunohematologic system be observed. The proposed continuation of studies will allow the authors to measure with very sensitive techniques (shown to detect meaningful changes at higher doses) any changes in immunohematology due to low level exposure rates to cumulative totals of 75 and 375 R. The authors could then state, based on experimental results, whether in fact these exposures are proportionally deleterious or not. In addition, the continuation of these studies will permit us to correlate early changes in immunohematological parameters with late effects; i.e., leukemia.