Radiation and cancer link

The first concrete evidence has linked exposure to low levels of radiation and a risk of developing leukaemia nearly twice that previously estimated.

The National Radiological Protection Board published the largest ever study in the British Medical Journal (25 January 1992) of the effects of low doses of radiation on workers, showing that the risk of developing leukaemia and all types of cancer are twice as high as that previously estimated.

This could mean that the dose limit thought to be safe will have to be halved, from 20 milliSeiverts per year to 10, if confirmed by follow up studies.

Of the 6600 deaths among workers in the study, several dozen were due to occupational exposure to radiation, with nearly 10 deaths from leukaemia.

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