Effects of ionizing radiation
Number 4
dose for certain somatic effects is resolved.1*
However, it would seem that the present
attitude will likely be maintained in view of
the positive correlation of linearity of genetic
effects to low doses of radiation. The
UNSCEAR report states that “because of
the available evidence that genetic damage
occurs at the lowest levels as yet experimentally tested, it is prudent to assume
that some genetic damage may follow any
dose of radiation, however small.”'®° On the
other hand, the report also points out that
“it must be recognized that the human
species has in fact always been exposed to
small amounts of radiation from a variety
of natural sources and that the present
additional average exposure of mankind
from all artificial sources is still smaller
than that from natural sources.”1® Recog-
nition of the risk involved balanced against
the objective assessment of the expected
benefit should provide the general guidelines
for exposure to controlled radiation sources.
Even with the most conservative
(and
pessimistic) point of view, the consequences
of low-level radiation should be examined
in context with other pediatric problems.’®
Manis exposed to a number of other muta-
genic agents, some of which may be of
greater potential importance.®? Preventable
deaths from infections still number in the
millions each year. During the sameseventy-
year period in which fallout from weapons
tests to date is estimated to cause (combin-
ing all age groups) 0 to 2,000 additional
cases of leukemia and 0 to 700 additional
cases of bone cancer, automobiles will account for 2,800,000 deaths.1°° Nevertheless,
the practice of good preventive pediatrics requires the considered awareness of any
avoidable risk of injury, however small, and
permits no complacent attitudes or liberal-
ization of the use of irradiation beyond
justifiable medical requirements.
REFERENCES
1. Stewart, A., Webb, J., and Hewitt, D.: A
survey of childhood malignancies, Brit. M.
J. 1: 1495, 1958.
2. Stewart, A., and Barber, R.: Survey of
childhood malignancies, Pub. Health Rep.
77: 129, 1962.
10.
11.
#2.
13.
14.
15.
16.
669
MacMahon, B.: Prenatal x-ray exposure
and childhood cancer, J. Nat. Cancer Inst.
28: 1173, 1962.
Simpson, C. L., Hempelmann, L. H., and
Fuller, L. M.: Neoplasia in children treated
with x-rays in infancy for thymic enlargement, Radiology 64: 840, 1955.
Simpson, C. L., and Hempelmann, L. H.:
The association of tumors and roentgen-ray
treatment of the thorax in infancy, Cancer
{0: 42, 1957.
Saenger, E. L., Silverman, F. N., Sterling,
T. D., and Turner, M. E.: Neoplasia following therapeutic irradiation for benign
conditions in childhood, Radiology 74: 889,
1960.
Pifer, J. W., Toyooka, E. T., Murray, R.
W., Ames, W. R., and Hempelmann, L. H.:
Neoplasms in children treated with x-rays
for thymic enlargement. I. Neoplasms and
mortality, J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 31: 1333,
1963.
Brill, A. B., Tomonaga, M., and Heyssel,
R. M.; Leukemia in man following exposure
to ionizing radiation. A summary of the
findings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a
comparison with other human experience,
Ann. Int. Med. 56: 590, 1962.
Hamilton, L. D.: The Hiroshima and
Nagasaki data and radiation carcinogenesis,
Ann. New York Acad. Sc. 114: 241, 1964,
Stewart, A., Pennybacker, W., and Barber,
R.; Adult leukaemias and diagnostic x-rays,
Brit. M. J. 2: 882, 1962.
Doll, R.: Epidemiological observations on
susceptibility to cancer in man with special
reference to age, Acta Unio internat. contra
cancrum 20: 747, 1964.
Sterling, T. D., Saenger, E. L., and Phair,
J. J.: Radiation epidemiology, Cancer 15:
489, 1962.
Doll, R.: Interpretations of epidemiologic
data, Cancer Res. 23: 1613, 1963.
Lamerton, L. F.: Radiation carcinogenesis,
Brit. M. Bull. 20; 134, 1964.
Hamilton, L. D.: Somatic effects, Nucleonics
21: 48, 1963.
Report of the United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, General Assembly Official Records:
17th session, Suppl. No. 16 (A/5216), New
York, 1962, United Nations.
17. Somatic effects of radiation, Annex D inref.
16, p. 118.
18. Cronkite, E. P., and Bond, V. P.: Diagnosis
of radiation injury and analysis of the human lethal dose of radiation, U. S. Armed
Forces M. J. 11: 249, 1960.
19. Liebow, A. A., Warren, 8., and de Coursey,
E.: Pathology of atomic bomb casualties,
Am. J. Path. 25: 853, 1949.
20. Hempelmann, L. H., Lisco, H., and Hoffman, J. G.: The acute radiation syndrome:
A study of nine cases and a review of the
problem, Ann. Int. Med. 36: 279, 1952.
21. Oughterson, A. W., and Warren, S.: Medical effects of the atomic bomb in Japan,
SNRRAEERNE ITEINEHyEC
Volume 6?