Tumour induction by methyl-nitroso-urea following preconceptional paternal contamination with plutonium-239

Tumour induction by methyl-nitroso-urea following preconceptional paternal contamination with plutonium-239

“…In summary, the observed associations in the study of Lord et al (1998) provide, at best, weak evidence for a causal effect of PPI on susceptibility to MNU-induced leukaemia and lymphoma yield in offspring of mice. Given the enormous doses of 239 Pu and MNU administered, which are several orders of magnitude greater than occupational or environmental exposure levels, even if the associations observed by Lord et al (1998) are not due to chance or bias, it is unlikely that they are of any material relevance to man at occupational and environmental dose levels.…”

“…The results of Lord et al (1998) imply that an interaction between PPI and exposure to some leukaemogenic agent postconception might be capable of explaining the Seascale cluster of childhood leukaemia. Previous work has shown that this explanation of the Seascale cluster is very unlikely to be true.…”

“…Lord et al (1998) argue that such a non-monotonic dose-response might be explicable by cell-sterilization effects of the sort observed in the UK ankylosing spondylitis patients (Smith and Doll, 1982;Weiss et al, 1995). However, this comparison is misleading.…”

“…We read with interest the paper by Lord et al (1998) . On the basis of their findings the authors state that 'there are no grounds for suggesting that these results explain the Seascale phenomena'.…”

“…Given the enormous doses of 239 Pu and MNU administered, which are several orders of magnitude greater than occupational or environmental exposure levels, even if the associations observed by Lord et al (1998) are not due to chance or bias, it is unlikely that they are of any material relevance to man at occupational and environmental dose levels. …”