course,
is concerned with the whole concept of whether the effects will he
levels,
and whether there is such a thing as threshold.
occurring at low levels in the same rate that they are occurring at high
In other words,
is there some level helow which nothing will happen?
"Again, this is very difficult to estahlish.
is very inconclusive in this direction,
The evidence, as I see it,
and if
I had to choose,
...,
IY would hesitate to accert this concept that a threshold does not exist,"
Dr. Shields Warren, a former Director of the Division of Rinlogy and
Medicine of the Atomic Energy Commission indicated he favored a threshold effect,
= "With acute or chronic radiation there is what is called a threshold
effect in body cells.
In other words,
because many cells can continue
to function even though irradiated and manv cells in the hody can be
repaired even though damaged, we find that at low levels of radiation
there is no observable effect ,...
"T have favored the concert of a threshold for most carcinogenic agents
for a number of reasons,
First, that in our experiments with carcinogenic
hydrocarbons, which are known to he derived from such substances as coal
tar, we find that a threshold exists for them.
We find that, with many
of the medicines that are commonly used for one or another effect on cells,
there is a threshold effect to these medicines,
We know,
by analogy with
simple things in physics there is a threshold effect.
For example, I can
push very lightly against this stand of the microphone, and it will not
move until I reach the threshold of where that push is greater than the
friction which tends to hold it still."
.
ourposes there is no threshold.
Thus he is attempting to prove a generality
with a generality.
2,
Also overlooked in Potter's exposition is the
unalterable fact that radioactive substances are unicue in nature and neither
behave like nor have the same effect as stable elements.
For example, it is
possible that the ingestion of certain chemicals (like some pesticides, or
other poisons, like cyanide) may cause chemical and thus genetic damage within
the body's somatic cells.
It has not been proven, however, that such ingestion
will cause hereditary damage in sex cells lasting for generations, as does
radiation.
Potter goes on to state:
"Linear projections or extrapolations are a semantic fiction
originating in the Euclidean concepts that arose in the days when
the earth was called flat and everything in geometry was worked
out in terms of rectilinear and rectangular frames of reference,
a state of affairs that still plagues the prohlems of solid state
physics."
Potter's assertion here is not entirely clear,
It may be that he is
playing a semantic game himself with the word "linear" or with the method of
expressing effects in terms of a two-dimensional chart using a straight line.
Could he just as effectively apply the inappropriateness of the word "proportions +"
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