Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation: - Clark University

England have found it convenient to model leukemia
risk with equations that include a term accounting
for this decline in risk at higher doses; this term
represents the idea that severely damaged cells will
not reproduce and therefore cannot lead to cancer.
Studies of people exposed to high doses of radiation
in cancer treatment, for example, have generally
shown low risks of leukemia in later years and
these are roughly compatible with A-bomb survivor
data using such a model (Little et al. 1999). Three
of the exposed groups discussed above, the atomic
bomb survivors, cervical cancer patients, and ankylosing
spondylitis patients, have been analyzed together
using the same type of model (Little et al.
1999). Although the three exposure groups showed
different patterns of total leukemia response, observations
restricted to specific types of leukemia were
compatible and each type showed a peak in risk at a
dose of 3-4 Sv.
Most of the evidence that we have for radiation-induced
leukemia, like other cancers, is for
relatively high doses. At lower doses (