Title: The human cancer in high natural background radiation areas

Authors: Ludwik Dobrzyński; Krzysztof W. Fornalski; Ludwig E. Feinendegen

Addresses: Department of Education and Trainings, National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ), Otwock-Świerk, Poland ' PGE EJ 1 Sp. z o.o., Warszawa, Poland ' Department of Nuclear Medicine, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Abstract: The studies of health effects in human populations living in places with high levels of natural background radiation are of crucial importance for understanding the impact of low doses of ionising radiation. The paper reviews some exemplary literature that addresses the likelihood of the radiation-induced cancer in aforementioned regions. It is shown that using Bayesian analysis one can arrive at an essentially different conclusion concerning dose-effect dependence from the one which could be guessed from first glance. The general conclusion is that cancers do not correlate with elevated radiation in regions with high natural background radiation.

Keywords: natural radiation; hormesis; background radiation; HBRA; HNBR; low radiation; human cancer; cancer risk; health hazards; Bayesian analysis; dose-effect dependence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2015.074413

International Journal of Low Radiation, 2015 Vol.10 No.2, pp.143 - 154

Received: 06 Sep 2015
Accepted: 20 Dec 2015
Published online: 28 Jan 2016 *

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