Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2022. Vol. 67. № 5
DOI: 10.33266/1024-6177-2022-67-5-33-40
A.N. Koterov1, A.A. Wainson2
CONJUNCTURAL APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF LOW DOSE RADIATION RANGE WITH LOW LET IN FOREIGN REVIEW SOURCES: NO CHANGES FOR 18 YEARS
1A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center, Moscow, Russia
2N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, Moscow, Russia
Contact person: Alexey N. Koterov, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dedicated to the memory of Professor S.P. Yarmonenko (1920–2011)
Abstract
The upper limit of low dose radiation with a low LET of 100 mGy, established in 2008 by international and internationally respected organizations UNSCEAR, ICRP, IAEA, NCRP (USA), BEIR (USA), DOE (USA), etc., is used by these organizations and programs at low doses (European MELODI and others) to date (documents 2019–2021). Researchers from Russia in the last decade adhere to this boundary quite strictly.
The conducted systematic review showed that leading foreign radiation epidemiologists from more than ten Western countries and Japan in their review publications for 2008–2022 (on the example of two themes: the rate mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and the rate of cataracts after irradiation – 54 sources in total) in 81 % of cases incorrectly (usually greatly overestimating) determine the limit of low dose radiation or do not mention it at all, although they consider the ‘effects of low doses’. In 41 % of review sources, the term ‘low dose’ or ‘low level’ was reflected in the title, but only 36 % of these had a correct definition of low doses.
Given the high international and national authority of the authors of the reviewed sources, the revealed incorrectness, apparently, cannot be accidental or be explained by lack of information (at least for the first authors). They are probably associated with unscientific reasons of a subjective and conjunctural nature, due to the desire to ‘prove’ the effects of low doses by any means, even by overestimating the value of their range, as it was decades ago.
Keywords: radiation with low LET, limit of low-dose, 100 mGy, foreign review sources, incorrect and missing definitions
For citation: Koterov AN, Wainson AA. Conjunctural Approach to the Concept of Low Dose Radiation Range with Low Let in Foreign Review Sources: no Changes for 18 Years. Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2022;67(5):33–40. (In Russian). DOI: 10.33266/1024-6177-2022-67-5-33-40
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PDF (RUS) Full-text article (in Russian)
Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Financing. The study had no sponsorship.
Contribution. Article was prepared with equal participation of the authors.
Article received: 20.06.2022. Accepted for publication: 25.08.2022.