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Pentreath RJ. Radiological protection, radioecology, and the protection of animals in high-dose exposure situations. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RADIOACTIVITY 2023; 270:107270. [PMID: 37598574 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2023.107270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023]
Abstract
Although much consideration has been given to the subject of 'protection of the environment' in recent years, this has largely been driven by the desire to protect the natural environment, focused on the needs to maintain biological diversity, the conservation of species, and so on. The numerical values developed to help achieve these aims have therefore been aimed at protecting animals at the population level. But recent experiences with large scale nuclear accidents, and the seemingly growing threat of acts of terrorism or worse, draw attention to the needs to consider in more detail the radiological protection of animals under high-dose exposure situations, and in the context of urban and agricultural environments rather than natural ones. The concerns here are also quite different - essentially those of animal welfare, at an individual, not a population, level. So now that the International Commission on Radiological Protection has embraced the need to consider protection of the animal as patient in veterinary medicine, it is worth considering a number of possible implications for responding to such environmental exposure situations, such as ethical drivers, dosimetric modelling, categorisation of radiation effects, and the need for numerical guidance. All of these issues are briefly discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- R J Pentreath
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK.
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Spatola GJ, Ostrander EA, Mousseau TA. The effects of ionizing radiation on domestic dogs: a review of the atomic bomb testing era. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:1799-1815. [PMID: 33987930 PMCID: PMC8429057 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Revised: 04/11/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Dogs were frequently employed as laboratory subjects during the era of atomic bomb testing (1950–1980), particularly in studies used to generate predictive data regarding the expected effects of accidental human occupational exposure to radiation. The bulk of these studies were only partly reported in the primary literature, despite providing vital information regarding the effects of radiation exposure on a model mammalian species. Herein we review this literature and summarize the biological effects in relation to the isotopes used and the method of radionuclide exposure. Overall, these studies demonstrate the wide range of developmental and physiological effects of exposure to radiation and radionuclides in a mid‐sized mammal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriella J Spatola
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, U.S.A.,Graduate Partnerships Program, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, U.S.A
| | - Elaine A Ostrander
- Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, U.S.A
| | - Timothy A Mousseau
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, U.S.A.,SURA/LASSO/NASA, ISS Utilization and Life Sciences Division, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL, 32899, U.S.A
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Martinez NE, Jokisch DW, Dauer LT, Eckerman KF, Goans RE, Brockman JD, Tolmachev SY, Avtandilashvili M, Mumma MT, Boice JD, Leggett RW. Radium dial workers: back to the future. Int J Radiat Biol 2021; 98:750-768. [PMID: 33900890 PMCID: PMC10563809 DOI: 10.1080/09553002.2021.1917785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE This paper reviews the history of the radium dial workers in the United States, summarizes the scientific progress made since the last evaluation in the early 1990s, and discusses current progress in updating the epidemiologic cohort and applying new dosimetric models for radiation risk assessment. BACKGROUND The discoveries of radiation and radioactivity led quickly to medical and commercial applications at the turn of the 20th century, including the development of radioluminescent paint, made by combining radium with phosphorescent material and adhesive. Workers involved with the painting of dials and instruments included painters, handlers, ancillary workers, and chemists who fabricated the paint. Dial painters were primarily women and, prior to the mid to late 1920s, would use their lips to give the brush a fine point, resulting in high intakes of radium. The tragic experience of the dial painters had a significant impact on industrial safety standards, including protection measures taken during the Manhattan Project. The dial workers study has formed the basis for radiation protection standards for intakes of radionuclides by workers and the public. EPIDEMIOLOGIC APPROACH The mortality experience of 3,276 radium dial painters and handlers employed between 1913 and 1949 is being determined through 2019. The last epidemiologic follow-up was 30 years ago when most of these workers were still alive. Nearly 65% were born before 1920, 37.5% were teenagers when first hired, and nearly 50% were hired before 1930 when the habit of placing brushes in mouths essentially stopped. Comprehensive dose reconstruction techniques are being applied to estimate organ doses for each worker related to the intake of 226Ra, 228Ra, and associated photon exposures. Time dependent dose-response analyses will estimate lifetime risks for specific causes of death. DISCUSSION The study of radium dial workers is part of the Million Person Study of low-dose health effects that is designed to evaluate radiation risks among healthy American workers and veterans. Despite being one of the most important and influential radiation effects studies ever conducted, shifting programmatic responsibilities and declining funding led to the termination of the radium program of studies in the early 1990s. Renewed interest and opportunity have arisen. With scientific progress made in dosimetric methodology and models, the ability to perform a study over the entire life span, and the potential applicability to other scenarios such as medicine, environmental contamination and space exploration, the radium dial workers have once again come to the forefront.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole E. Martinez
- Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
- Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Derek W. Jokisch
- Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
- Department of Physics and Engineering, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, USA
| | - Lawrence T. Dauer
- Department of Medical Physics and Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Keith F. Eckerman
- Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | | | - John D. Brockman
- Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Sergey Y. Tolmachev
- United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington State University, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Maia Avtandilashvili
- United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington State University, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Michael T. Mumma
- International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - John D. Boice
- Department of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Richard W. Leggett
- Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
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Bijwaard H, Brugmans MJP, Leenhouts HP. Two-mutation models for bone cancer due to radium, strontium and plutonium. Radiat Res 2004; 162:171-84. [PMID: 15387145 DOI: 10.1667/rr3184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Data from beagle experiments and radium dial painters were used to derive two-mutation carcinogenesis models for bone cancer induced by the bone-seeking radionuclides radium, strontium and plutonium. For all data, the model fits indicate that at low doses both mutation rates depend linearly and equally strongly on dose rate. For the high-LET alpha-particle emitters, a cell killing term reduces the second mutation rate at high dose rates. In all cases, the combined effect of both mutation rates is a linear-quadratic dose-effect relationship for cancer at low doses. This behavior may lead to experimental data that could be mistaken as showing a threshold below which no cancers are induced. Derived parameters such as toxicity ratios and tumor growth times compare well with values reported in the literature. Furthermore, results for plutonium indicate that rapid burial of the nuclide in the growing bones of juvenile beagles leads to a significant reduction of its toxicity, as was suggested previously. The results for radium in beagles compare well with those for humans and suggest that the models derived for strontium and plutonium in beagles may be translated to humans. The significant model parameters for the accurate animal data could then also be used to fit human epidemiological data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harmen Bijwaard
- Laboratory for Radiation Research, RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
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Bijwaard H, Brugmans MJP, Leenhouts HP. A consistent two-mutation model of bone cancer for two data sets of radium-injected beagles. JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION : OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION 2002; 22:A67-A70. [PMID: 12400950 DOI: 10.1088/0952-4746/22/3a/312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
A two-mutation carcinogenesis model has been applied to model osteosarcoma incidence in two data sets of beagles injected with 226Ra. Taking age-specific retention into account, the following results have been obtained: (1) a consistent and well-fitting solution for all age and dose groups, (2) mutation rates that are linearly dependent on dose rate, with an exponential decrease for the second mutation at high dose rates, (3) a linear-quadratic dose-effect relationship, which indicates that care should be taken when extrapolating linearly, (4) highest cumulative incidences for injection at young adult age, and highest risks for injection doses of a few kBq kg(-1) at these ages, and (5) when scaled appropriately, the beagle model compares fairly well with a description for radium dial painters, suggesting that a consistent model description of bone cancer induction in beagles and humans may be possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Bijwaard
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands
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