A New Era of Low-Dose Radiation Epidemiology

Abstract

The last decade has introduced a new era of epidemiologic studies of low-dose radiation facilitated by electronic record linkage and pooling of cohorts that allow for more direct and powerful assessments of cancer and other stochastic effects at doses below 100 mGy. Such studies have provided additional evidence regarding the risks of cancer, particularly leukemia, associated with lower-dose radiation exposures from medical, environmental, and occupational radiation sources, and have questioned the previous findings with regard to possible thresholds for cardiovascular disease and cataracts. Integrated analysis of next generation genomic and epigenetic sequencing of germline and somatic tissues could soon propel our understanding further regarding disease risk thresholds, radiosensitivity of population subgroups and individuals, and the mechanisms of radiation carcinogenesis. These advances in low-dose radiation epidemiology are critical to our understanding of chronic disease risks from the burgeoning use of newer and emerging medical imaging technologies, and the continued potential threat of nuclear power plant accidents or other radiological emergencies.

The Impact of the Background Radiation on the Health

“…However, there was few studies with strong evidence of hazard effect on human health. One of the reason is difficulties in identifying the true natural ionizing radiation risk, as comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome contribute negative effect to the whole organism as well [33]. Our findings seems to suggest that the first step in identifying clear effect on health due to natural radiation is conducting a good epidemiological study in order to detect an annual effective dose of radiation.…”

Clinical and epidemiological observations on individual radiation sensitivity and susceptibility

“…In the 1980s, the predominant source of radiation exposure (>80%) was from natural background radiation in the USA. By the mid 2000s, the estimated per capita annual dose almost doubled from 3.6 mSv to 6.2 mSv, mainly due to higher medical radiation exposure, in particular from diagnostic procedures such as CT scans or X-rays (summarized by Kitahara et al 2015). A number of studies found elevated cancer risks (in particular leukemia and brain tumors) after multiple CT scans in children and adolescents (e.g.…”

Health implications of ionising radiation

“…Powerful new epidemiological studies over the past decade have provided estimates both more accurate and demonstrating greater radiation-related health risks than previously estimated (Kitahara et al 2015). These studies are made possible by electronically linking data on radiation exposure, especially at low doses, and health outcomes for large numbers of people, such as for children who underwent a CT scan funded by national health insurance, who subsequently developed a cancer reported to their local cancer registry.…”