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[cdn-nucl-l] More on Chernobyl John Alquist's review of Gunnar Walinder's "Has Radiation Protection Become a Health Hazard?"
FYI
J
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gunnar Walinder" <gunnar.walinder@telia.com>
To: <rad-sci-l@ans.ep.wisc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [rad-sci-l] John Alquist's review of Gunnar Walinder's "Has
Radiation Protection Become a Health Hazard?"
> 01-05-03 19.33, skrev Jacobus, John (OD/ORS) på jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov
> följande:
>
> Dr. John Jacobus,
>
> A few words about your comments on John Ahlquist´s reference of my book.
> Let me first make all possible apologies for my Swenglish.
>
> Primarily, the OTarget theory¹ was a development of the OHit theory¹
> (Dessauer) and the word target had the meaning of a poissonian probability
> (cf. the target for inducing radioactivity by thermal neutrons). However,
as
> the word indicates, it has also a spatial meaning. What the originators of
> the target theory (Timoféeff-Ressovsky, Zimmer, Delbrück, and others) had
in
> mind was that the probability of an effect could be considered as a target
> volume within which an event (e.g. an ionization) resulted in an effect
> whereas all events outside this volume were entirely ineffective.
> They were primarily interested in lethal mutations. When estimating
the
> target volume (i.e. the probability) of this lethal effect, they found it
> identical with the size of the irradiated, prokaryotic cell and with the
> cell nucleus in the eukaryotic cell.
> In the 1950s, cancer was considered a result of a single mutation and,
> accordingly, it should be regarded in the same way as the lethal
mutations.
> That´s why the target theory got a certain impact on the discussions of
how
> the dose-response relationships should be interpreted and, thus, on how
one
> should understand radiation risks.
>
> You also expressed some doubt about the 1250 cases of suicide. In my book
I
> have pointed out that this figure was obtained from a press release in
1994
> (from Russian authorities). In this release it was stated that out of 7000
> fatalities among the liquidators 1250 had committed suicide.
> I visited the Byelorussia and Ukraine many times during the years in
the
> beginning of the 1990s. I was struck by the enormous despair of the
people.
> When I asked the children in a Byelorussian school what they wished to do
> when they have grown-up, they looked at me, astonished, straight in my
face
> and said: we will never become grown-up. When I visited the town Gomel in
> the Byelorussia, people gathered around me and showered upon me questions
> like can we eat our food, we are not allowed to sell our products ,how
shall
> we survive...... I was drawn into the kitchens and asked if I dared to
eat
> their food. I can assure you that I have eaten myself sick of dried apples
> and old vegetables. I think that this situation and despair has to be
> experienced to be fully understood. In my frequent talks with Angelina
> Guskowa I got my impressions fully confirmed.
> Under these circumstances I am inclined to believe in this figure of
> 1250 cases of suicide among the liquidators.
>
> With best regards.
> Sincerely,
>
> Gunnar Walinder
>
> > The reviewer says that in Chapter 2, "The author suggests that in light
of
> > current knowledge, the old Target Theory (where a single event in the
genome
> > could transfer a cell into a malignant precursor) is limited in that the
> > basic theory may be correct but that reality is more complex than
theory."
> >
> > The "old target theory" as I remember it was used to determine the size
of
> > radiosensitive volumes in cellular models, e.g., by plotting dose to
> > surviving fraction of cells, you could determine the number of hits to
> > inactivate a cell. And this concept does back to the 1920's. It had
> > nothing to do with a single hit causing a malignancy. Or am I missing
> > something?
> >
> > I also find the statement that 1250 first responders a Chernobyl
committed
> > suicide disturbing.
> >
> >
> >
> > -- John
> > John Jacobus, MS
> > Certified Health Physicist
> > 3050 Traymore Lane
> > Bowie, MD 20715-2024
> >
> > E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
> >
> > ===========
> >
> > http://www.aps.org/units/fps/apr01/apreviews.html#a3
> >
> >
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>
>
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