From: makay@reed.edu (Michael A Kay)
Newsgroups: sci.med.physics
Subject: Re: series on the nuclear establishment:  deadliest addiction of all
Keywords: secrecy, extreme behaviour, rationalization, lies, self-destructive
Date: 17 Nov 92 07:30:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Nov17.073057.3057
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon


The Other Side That No One Has Disproven!

I direct your attention to two books published by Dr. T. Don Luckey,
Radiation Hormesis and Hormesis With Ionizing Radiation both
published by CRC Press of Boca Ratan, Florida. One around 1980 and
the second around 1990.

In these two books Dr. Luckey has assembled over 1200 references
to experiments where small doses of ionizing radation on the order
of 1 to 10 times background proved beneficial to the organisms
receiving them. His thesis disproves the linear extrapolation
of harmful effects at high doses to low dose situations.

The phenomenon of hormesis where a substance is beneficial, yea-
even essential, at low doses, and harmful at higher doses has
been known for centuries. There are essential elements that the
body requires in order to function properly. Yet, many of these
elements are harmful in large doses. For example, copper, vitamin A
selenium, florine, iron, sodium, potassium, even water!

The other aspect of this is that a deficiency condition can be
created by too little of the essential nutrient. It is possible
that the same goes for radiation. It is entirely possible that
the stimulation of the cell repair and immune systems by low
doses of ionizing radiation makes the organism healthier and more
vigorous, and even more able to resist cell changes that lead to
cancer.

I also refer you to the issues of the Journal of Health Physics and
Newsletter of the Health Physics Society where there have been 
several articles and letters concerning this thesis. Although
it may seem to go counter to "conventional wisdom", no direct
contradiction to the theory has been proposed by anyone.

I personally have seen this phenomenon time and time again with
irradiated tomato seeds. I would irradiate packages of seeds for
high school classes with varying doses of gamma rays. Without
fail, the reports sent back by the growers would say that the
seeds exposed to low doses were more vigorous than the controls
not exposed to any radiation, and that the seeds exposed to higher
doses produced stunted plants.

There are several hundred referenced to mammals in the second
book "Hormesis With Ionizing Radiation". There are studies where
a colony of mice was called the Mice That Refused To Die because
they lived an average of 1.5 time the controls. These experiments
can be replicated. Unless you can disprove these experiments, including
the natural experiments on humans living on radioactive sands in 
Kerela, India or beaches in Brazil, or Denver, Colorado, the 
entrenched orthodoxy is wrong!

All beings on earth have developed in higher radiation fields than
exist on earth today. Background radiation has decreased because
of the shorter half life of Uranium-235 compared to the age of the
earth.

The most controversial part of this theory is that not only are
low doses of radiation beneficial, but that the absence of 
all radiation causes a deficiency syndrome. Is radiation an
essential part of life? Some preliminary studies on this thesis
have indicated that single celled organisms do not do as well in
reduced radiation areas, such as in spaces with lead walls several
feet thick.

One item of note for your edification is that even the majority of the
current orthodoxy will agree that your references are on the other
fringe. Recent reinvestigations of the atomic bomb victims
have concluded that the doses were higher than originally estimated
due to higher neutron contribution. The Chernoble disaster is an
example of doses thousands to millions of times higher than background,
especially to the thyroid and other radiosensitive organs. The effects
are now becoming apparent. This is to be expected for such high
doses.

Michael A. Kay, ScD, CHMM
Doctorate in Nuclear Analytical Chemistry
makay@reed.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med.physics