Lawrence Solomon: Plutonium for Pluto
“These statistics indicate the likelihood that low doses of alpha-particle radiation protected against and reduced the incidence of lung cancer relative to the controls,” reported the researchers, based at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, one of the Department of Energy’s 10 national laboratories.
The researchers’ findings, which appeared in an article entitled Carcinogenesis from inhaled 239PuO2 in beagles: Evidence for radiation homeostasis at low doses?, add weight to the growing evidence that low levels of radiation, contrary to conventional wisdom, have health benefits. That portends good news for all mankind, and for mankind’s best friend. (Financial Post)
Radiation from airport scanners very low: study
Airport scanners are an “extremely low” source of radiation exposure that poses virtually no health risk, not even to frequent air travelers, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study may help ease fears of uneasy travelers already spooked by reports of radiation leaking from the crippled nuclear plants in Japan.
“There is such a vast difference between super-low doses of radiation and the really high doses that happen if you are in the middle of a nuclear accident,” said Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, whose study appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“Because they are all called radiation, we are tempted to put them all in the same category. That is a mistake.”
She said the nuclear crisis in Japan has heightened fear about radiation, but she said a person would have to get more than 50 airport scans to get as much radiation exposure as one gets from a dental X-ray. (Reuters)
