New Paper On the Internal Effects of Low Level Radiation

Phillip Day, Reader in Chemistry at the University of Manchester, has written a new paper on the biological effects of internal emitters of radiation and why conventional dosimetry fails to understand the risk they pose. This is of particular interest for those interested in the issue of DU as most of the risk scenarios familiar to campaigners, such as to returning civilian populations to post-conflict areas and soldiers in battlefield situations, feature this type of DU exposure. Munitions composed of DU will tend to oxidize on impact, leaving a fine dust that can spread over a large area and stay in the environment for an indefinite period of time and thus be inhaled or swallowed.

Phillip Day in his article explains that in conventional dosimetry, radiation doses are averaged over relatively large volumes of similar tissues but that internally absorbed alpha and, to a lesser extent, beta particles are absorbed over short distances. They therefore generate a very high density of ionisation and hence chemical damage along their tracks. This will irradiate relatively small numbers of adjacent cells to a high intensity, causing major biochemical changes in localized clusters. In sensitive tissue areas these irradiated clusters can be linked to such biological outcomes as the initiation of some forms of cancer.

This article is suitable for the layperson to read and is now available on the CADU website.

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