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Jars of Irradiated Russian Animals Find a New Purpose

Posted by Unknown on from the osha-radiation-guidelines-for-zone-trippers dept.

scibri writes with bits and pieces from the article: "From the early 1950s to the end of the cold war, nearly 250,000 animals were systematically irradiated in the Russian town of Ozersk. Fearful of a nuclear attack by the United States, the Soviet Union wanted to understand how radiation damages tissues and causes diseases such as cancer. Now, these archives have become important to a new generation of radiobiologists, who want to explore the effects of the extremely low doses of radiation — below 100 millisieverts — that people receive during medical procedures such as computed-tomography diagnostic scans, and by living close to the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan."

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. News and Truth have a very limited half-lfe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    There was already a longterm study release a few weeks ago that confirmed that dental x-rays and such are a source of common brain tumors....how long until those stories get taken down is anyone's guess....now move along citizen...

  2. Radiation Hormesis by HangingChad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Back in the day we were still doing radiation experiments in the U.S., the low dose groups consistently outlived the controls. The theory of radiation hormesis has been fairly well documented since the 50's.

    The most supported version of how it works is that low levels of ionizing radiation do minor damage to DNA while triggering the repair mechanisms. While the DNA repair is happening, it fixes more than the damage from the ionizing radiation, cleaning up other little problems along the way. Obviously that's the highly simplified explanation, the details are mind numbingly complex. The interesting conclusion would be finding the exact line between a helpful dose and one that does more damage than the repair mechanisms can fix. It really takes a hell of a dose to raise your lifetime cancer risk, so I'm curious to see the study conclusions.

    So those people who used to go sit in old uranium mines to inhale that radon gas might have been on to something.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Radiation Hormesis by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There's not been actual scientific evidence for radiation hormesis in humans, despite it being your pet theory.

      These were animal studies and it's not my pet theory. I was directly involved in many of those studies as a staff scientist and I don't give a rat's ass what UNSCEAR says, I saw it over and over again.

      The background cancer rate in humans is 1 in 3, so there would have to be a huge population study to validate the findings in humans and it's just not going to happen unless large populations of humans are exposed to varying yet highly precise levels of ionizing radiation.

      And, just for the record, UNSCEAR couldn't find a black cat on a white field at high noon with a microscope.

      --
      That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  3. Re:I wonder... by ericloewe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The TSA is actually a complex study that uses a huge sample:

    TSA agents are the chronically exposed
    Frequent travellers are the regularly exposed
    Occasional travellers are the occasionally exposed

    Backscatter scanners are the real deal
    mm-Wave scanners are the placebo