1 month could be assumed, similar conditions of exposure in man might be expected to cause a reduction of the mean after survival time of 9 to 10 days /rad
of gamma-ray exposure.

232.

Grahn and Sacher [G1] based their extrapolations on the linearity of

the log mean after-survival in days as a function of daily dose in rad or R,
for mean after-survival of 25 per cent or more of the control values.

This

linear trend of the mean after-survival had been shown previously to hold for
the mouse [S4]

(see Figure XV).

The coefficient of this regression is a species

constant [G9] and reflects the days of life lost per rad or the fraction lost
per day.

It may therefore allow, when two points referring to a given species

are Known, to define the slope of the curve applying to that species.

The ratio

of the life-shortening coefficients would be in a direct proportion to the ratio
of life expectancies for non-irradiated populations or to the ratio of the agespecific mortality rate slopes.

A radio susceptibility scale could thus be con-

structed for man, dog, guinea-pig and mouse, on the basis of the slopes being in
the ratio of 33:10:3:1 for life expectancies of 16500, 4000, 1400 and 500 days,
respectively.

It could therefore be deduced that the relative sensitivity of

the various species (expressed in per cent life-shortening for exposure of 1 rad)
Was approximately the same for all species and in the ratio of:
guinea-pig = 1.8;

dog = 1.25; and man = 1.

mouse = 1;

Similar conclusions were also drawn

by Sacher [S23, S14].

233.

Grahn [G6] explored further the problem of inter-species comparisons,

starting from the notion of the exponential decline of mean after-survival with

daily dose, already mentioned repeatedly (see Figure XV).

By comparing the vi-

tal statistics of two selected populations of male men and mice, he established
that the ratio of time scale to equate the two populations is 10 mouse days =
1 man year, or 1 mouse day = 36.5 man days, a factor slightly higher than he
previously used (33:1)
(20:1)

[F4].

[G1] and much higher than that used by Failla and McClement

In consideration of these other estimates Grahn selected for his

calculations a ratio of 1:30 and established that the daily dose to induce a
20 per cent reduction of life expectancy in man would be 0.65 R/day, to be compared with a 19.4 R/day in the mouse.

Calculations for man and for other spe-

cies showed that the guinea-pig would be a relatively sensitive species in a
framework defined by the mouse, dog and man.

It should be pointed out that the

life-span and radiosensitivity values used for these calculations are very much
at variance with those in the 1968 paper by the same authors [G11 and therefore
the relative sensitivity scales in the two papers do not correspond.

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