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Radiation at home, outdoors and in the work place
The Science of the Total Environment 303 (2003) 259–261
Book review
Radiation at home, outdoors and in the work place Dag Brune, Ragnar Hellborg, Bertil R.R. Persson, ¨¨ ¨ Rauno Paakkonen. Scandinavian Science Publisher, Oslo, 2001, p. 547.
The preface of this book, ‘A World of Radiation’, opens wide horizons based on new technologies; physical, economical and health-related. The globe-embracing expansion started with the ¨ German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895 and the French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel’s discovery in 1896 of natural radioactivity. The so-called nuclear age was dramatically figured further by the German chemist Otto Hahn’s discovery of the fission process in 1938. The most spectacular outcome was the atomic bomb, exploding in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Numerous non-military applications have changed and are changing the conditions of mankind. The observers of this world of radiation are 24 leading Scandinavian scientists and other experts. Their findings and comments—technical, medical, social—are communicated to presumed readers covering the broadest possible range from academic audiences and decision makers to numerous other people in industry, commerce, education, not to mention training centres and governmental departments. It goes without saying that this is a formidable pedagogical ambition. Basic facts have to be expressed in mathematical formulas and in technical, physical and chemical language, which may rise obstacles for more than one reader. However, the bulk of the conclusions—and instructions—are open to readers lacking professional framework. The often undue respect for formulas should not prevent a reader to proceed beyond them. The con-
tent of the book, condensing numerous other volumes referred to, is separated into nine parts, each subdivided in chapters. The health aspects are pronounced in all of them. The FIRST PART presents the fundamentals of ionising and non-ionising radiation and, a bit surprising, also mechanical waves. Terms and definitions are explained, including their chemical, physical and biological characteristics. This part is essential for a proper understanding of dose– response calculations and the variables in risk models. Risk estimations of the impact of small doses of ionising radiation such as radiationinduced cancer are mainly based on theoretical considerations as empirical data are too few. The examples given, however, are not comprehensive. Adaptive effects and induced radio resistance at the cellular level are discussed and its complexity indicated. Long time radiation exposure from sun, earth and atmosphere still hide secrets. There are other scenarios containing unknown variables: the climate and earth balance; the impact of man-made radiation on the climate. All model scenarios point at a continued increase in global mean surface temperature. The effects of the greenhouse gases and man made aerosols are far from conclusive. However, the approaches available are discussed. The arena for non-ionising radiation includes lasers, visible light and UV. The health effects of IR-radiation, microwaves and radio frequency fields, proven or presumed, are linked to exposure patterns and exposure doses. An illustrative example is the thermal and non-thermal interaction of RF and microwaves. The necessary shielding of low frequency electromagnetic fields is more of an art than of science compared to ionising radiation. The state of art of shielding, however, is outlined.
0048-9697/03/$ - see front matter 䊚 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 4 8 - 9 6 9 7 Ž 0 2 . 0 0 3 4 3 - 1
260
Book review
PART TWO is an overview of the occurrence of natural and man-made radiation and its impact on both universe and the earth’s soil, water and vegetation. Particular attention is paid to radioecology and nuclear technology. Radioecology focuses its interest on the behaviour of radioactivity in the environment and on the health perspectives. Large amounts of radioisotopes have been produced in the weapon programs undertaken in the US, UK, USSR. The Chernobyl disaster brought to the fore the impact on forest- and fresh water ecosystems. The ecological processes impact individuals, populations, communities. The nuclear technology, from energy production to the use of radiating sources in technical and medical applications, is a fascinating part of the human history. Many exposure threats are global in nature from accidents in nuclear power reactors over waste disposal to military use. PART THREE deals with the interaction of radiation with plant systems of which the photosynthesis is a major theme. Solar radiation interacts with the plant systems. Biochemical processes elevate electrical potentials across the cell membranes of the plant. How external electromagnetic fields can interfere with internal electric voltages and currents is explained, so also reactions in the plants leading to damage. The assimilation of carbon dioxide in the plants through small adjustable openings or valves is nicely outlined. Plants exercise a sophistically kind of colour view, which is part of the adjustment to light and darkness. However the plants vision is not imaging which differs them from human vision. Electric fields affect both growth rate and growth direction. Plants as animals are affected by electromagnetic fields in which an increase of the temperature of the tissue plays an important role. Having in mind the current environmental interest this chapter should have granted benefits from an extended number of practical examples. In PART FOUR the interest is focussed on the residential exposures to radiation and electromagnetic fields of many kinds. Ionising radiation from construction materials and the ground is common. Technical, electrical and electromagnetic sources produce local exposure far exceeding the natural background levels. Power lines is a dominant
source in houses. Transformers and electric cabling occur both in house and in the open air. A number of in-house appliances produce electric and magnetic fields. Increasing in number are, to name a few, computer displays, theft alarms, mobile phones. The reported symptoms of sensitivity associated with such exposure varies among countries. The symptoms are by and large not specific and may reflect other exposures including workload, mental pressure, stresses. Possible mechanisms of electromagnetic sensitivity are outlined and discussed. An early intervention is important in order to prevent aggravating symptoms. Health care is the topic of PART FIVE. Radiation has many uses in medicine, in diagnoses and in therapy. Sources of exposure for ionising radiation are numerous. There are many radiation generators and radio-nuclide applications. Common non-ionising applications are NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), ultrasound and microwaves. The chapters include diagnostic X-ray examinations, radiation therapy, applications of nuclear medicine examinations and treatment, the use of microwaves, RF-radiation and EMF in tumour therapy. Nuclear magnetic resource scanning has got a chapter of its own. Estimates of organ dose and effective dose are defined and typical values of effective doses to patient displayed. Current practice in radiotherapy show significant variations in the doseytime schedules. Effective doses for the most frequent nuclear medicine procedures are tabulated. Many clinical applications dealt with in part five are quite technical-mathematical in nature. PART SIX, the workplace, pictures the technological transition from old to new technologies and its impact on health and safety. Information technology has in a short period of time radically changed the world. Workplace exposure to ionising and non-ionising radiation from a number of new sources are common and the biological effects, particularly the long-term health risks, are in many cases unclear. The knowledge available covers common risks and preventive measures. The sequences recognition, measurement and evaluation of the health risks are briefly explained. The tools and strategies for risk assessment and control in industry, office work, shops, banks, control rooms, outdoor work, are presented. Illustrative
Book review
didactic examples are taken from mines (old) and the military environment (new). PART SEVEN, wireless communications, is a condensed discourse of the use of electromagnetic waves since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1896. Dominating applications today are mobile phones, the denoted cellular phones and cordless phones. The impact on health, physical and mental, from the use of wireless communication devices is evaluated in perspective of published studies and current knowledge. This opens a broader understanding of the difficulties involved in standard setting and guiding specifications, practical guidelines and standards. Proven experience is lagging. Electromagnetic fields from power lines and induced tumour incidence is only one example of this. PART EIGHT summarises the impact of leisure and outdoors activities. Man’s exposure to cosmic, terrestrial and internal radiation is described in earlier chapters. The exposure varies with altitudes and the earths’ magnetic fields. People are increasingly exposed to cosmic radiation at high altitudes during air flights. The dose-related effects of different kinds of radiation are both positive and negative. Beneficial effects includes the synthesis of vitamin D3 and the stimulation of the immune system, the endogenous circadian rhythm. Adverse effects on the eye and skin, are exemplified. The tissues defence systems and reinforcing preventive measures are described. In PART NINE the basics of rules and regulations are summarised, commented and discussed. The control of short term and long term risks is explained. The common procedure in standard setting starts with a study of the effects of high expo-
261
sure. Permissible levels are set with a margin to the dangerous. Human exposure at work, animal experiments, laboratory tests are classical first sources of information. Accidents and disasters often trigger new efforts. Here the guidelines and standards are exemplified and explained from different risk patterns such as thermal response, neurological disorders, tumour development, genetic models. Standard setting bodies are named and the most common radiation quantities and units defined such as absorbed dose, quality factor, dose equivalent and radiation weighting factors. It is noted that it takes time to update rules and regulations according to recent research findings. Part nine verifies this: several of the rules referred to were outdated before the book reached the reader. To summarise: this is a book accounting massive knowledge and numerous facts. The author’s individual preferences can be traced in the texts. In 30 boxes basic or topical issues are condensed to the benefit of the reader. Actually, this book is the last one in a series of three. In 1997 the Scandinavian Publisher, Oslo, with the ILO, Geneva, as a copublisher, published two extensive volumes covering all the classic work-related health issues. (The Workplace I: Fundamentals of Health, Safety and Welfare, 998 pp. The Workplace II: 860 pp. Didactic examples from major industries and corporations). With this third volume, Radiation, the driving force behind, Dr Dag Brune, has completed a life long ambition of high dignity. Hopefully these three volumes are to be found side by side in many book-shelves throughout over the world. Gideon Gerhardsson Professor emeritus, Tantogatan 71, SE-118 42 Stockholm, Sweden
Book review
Radiation at home, outdoors and in the work place Dag Brune, Ragnar Hellborg, Bertil R.R. Persson, ¨¨ ¨ Rauno Paakkonen. Scandinavian Science Publisher, Oslo, 2001, p. 547.
The preface of this book, ‘A World of Radiation’, opens wide horizons based on new technologies; physical, economical and health-related. The globe-embracing expansion started with the ¨ German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895 and the French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel’s discovery in 1896 of natural radioactivity. The so-called nuclear age was dramatically figured further by the German chemist Otto Hahn’s discovery of the fission process in 1938. The most spectacular outcome was the atomic bomb, exploding in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Numerous non-military applications have changed and are changing the conditions of mankind. The observers of this world of radiation are 24 leading Scandinavian scientists and other experts. Their findings and comments—technical, medical, social—are communicated to presumed readers covering the broadest possible range from academic audiences and decision makers to numerous other people in industry, commerce, education, not to mention training centres and governmental departments. It goes without saying that this is a formidable pedagogical ambition. Basic facts have to be expressed in mathematical formulas and in technical, physical and chemical language, which may rise obstacles for more than one reader. However, the bulk of the conclusions—and instructions—are open to readers lacking professional framework. The often undue respect for formulas should not prevent a reader to proceed beyond them. The con-
tent of the book, condensing numerous other volumes referred to, is separated into nine parts, each subdivided in chapters. The health aspects are pronounced in all of them. The FIRST PART presents the fundamentals of ionising and non-ionising radiation and, a bit surprising, also mechanical waves. Terms and definitions are explained, including their chemical, physical and biological characteristics. This part is essential for a proper understanding of dose– response calculations and the variables in risk models. Risk estimations of the impact of small doses of ionising radiation such as radiationinduced cancer are mainly based on theoretical considerations as empirical data are too few. The examples given, however, are not comprehensive. Adaptive effects and induced radio resistance at the cellular level are discussed and its complexity indicated. Long time radiation exposure from sun, earth and atmosphere still hide secrets. There are other scenarios containing unknown variables: the climate and earth balance; the impact of man-made radiation on the climate. All model scenarios point at a continued increase in global mean surface temperature. The effects of the greenhouse gases and man made aerosols are far from conclusive. However, the approaches available are discussed. The arena for non-ionising radiation includes lasers, visible light and UV. The health effects of IR-radiation, microwaves and radio frequency fields, proven or presumed, are linked to exposure patterns and exposure doses. An illustrative example is the thermal and non-thermal interaction of RF and microwaves. The necessary shielding of low frequency electromagnetic fields is more of an art than of science compared to ionising radiation. The state of art of shielding, however, is outlined.
0048-9697/03/$ - see front matter 䊚 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 4 8 - 9 6 9 7 Ž 0 2 . 0 0 3 4 3 - 1
260
Book review
PART TWO is an overview of the occurrence of natural and man-made radiation and its impact on both universe and the earth’s soil, water and vegetation. Particular attention is paid to radioecology and nuclear technology. Radioecology focuses its interest on the behaviour of radioactivity in the environment and on the health perspectives. Large amounts of radioisotopes have been produced in the weapon programs undertaken in the US, UK, USSR. The Chernobyl disaster brought to the fore the impact on forest- and fresh water ecosystems. The ecological processes impact individuals, populations, communities. The nuclear technology, from energy production to the use of radiating sources in technical and medical applications, is a fascinating part of the human history. Many exposure threats are global in nature from accidents in nuclear power reactors over waste disposal to military use. PART THREE deals with the interaction of radiation with plant systems of which the photosynthesis is a major theme. Solar radiation interacts with the plant systems. Biochemical processes elevate electrical potentials across the cell membranes of the plant. How external electromagnetic fields can interfere with internal electric voltages and currents is explained, so also reactions in the plants leading to damage. The assimilation of carbon dioxide in the plants through small adjustable openings or valves is nicely outlined. Plants exercise a sophistically kind of colour view, which is part of the adjustment to light and darkness. However the plants vision is not imaging which differs them from human vision. Electric fields affect both growth rate and growth direction. Plants as animals are affected by electromagnetic fields in which an increase of the temperature of the tissue plays an important role. Having in mind the current environmental interest this chapter should have granted benefits from an extended number of practical examples. In PART FOUR the interest is focussed on the residential exposures to radiation and electromagnetic fields of many kinds. Ionising radiation from construction materials and the ground is common. Technical, electrical and electromagnetic sources produce local exposure far exceeding the natural background levels. Power lines is a dominant
source in houses. Transformers and electric cabling occur both in house and in the open air. A number of in-house appliances produce electric and magnetic fields. Increasing in number are, to name a few, computer displays, theft alarms, mobile phones. The reported symptoms of sensitivity associated with such exposure varies among countries. The symptoms are by and large not specific and may reflect other exposures including workload, mental pressure, stresses. Possible mechanisms of electromagnetic sensitivity are outlined and discussed. An early intervention is important in order to prevent aggravating symptoms. Health care is the topic of PART FIVE. Radiation has many uses in medicine, in diagnoses and in therapy. Sources of exposure for ionising radiation are numerous. There are many radiation generators and radio-nuclide applications. Common non-ionising applications are NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), ultrasound and microwaves. The chapters include diagnostic X-ray examinations, radiation therapy, applications of nuclear medicine examinations and treatment, the use of microwaves, RF-radiation and EMF in tumour therapy. Nuclear magnetic resource scanning has got a chapter of its own. Estimates of organ dose and effective dose are defined and typical values of effective doses to patient displayed. Current practice in radiotherapy show significant variations in the doseytime schedules. Effective doses for the most frequent nuclear medicine procedures are tabulated. Many clinical applications dealt with in part five are quite technical-mathematical in nature. PART SIX, the workplace, pictures the technological transition from old to new technologies and its impact on health and safety. Information technology has in a short period of time radically changed the world. Workplace exposure to ionising and non-ionising radiation from a number of new sources are common and the biological effects, particularly the long-term health risks, are in many cases unclear. The knowledge available covers common risks and preventive measures. The sequences recognition, measurement and evaluation of the health risks are briefly explained. The tools and strategies for risk assessment and control in industry, office work, shops, banks, control rooms, outdoor work, are presented. Illustrative
Book review
didactic examples are taken from mines (old) and the military environment (new). PART SEVEN, wireless communications, is a condensed discourse of the use of electromagnetic waves since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1896. Dominating applications today are mobile phones, the denoted cellular phones and cordless phones. The impact on health, physical and mental, from the use of wireless communication devices is evaluated in perspective of published studies and current knowledge. This opens a broader understanding of the difficulties involved in standard setting and guiding specifications, practical guidelines and standards. Proven experience is lagging. Electromagnetic fields from power lines and induced tumour incidence is only one example of this. PART EIGHT summarises the impact of leisure and outdoors activities. Man’s exposure to cosmic, terrestrial and internal radiation is described in earlier chapters. The exposure varies with altitudes and the earths’ magnetic fields. People are increasingly exposed to cosmic radiation at high altitudes during air flights. The dose-related effects of different kinds of radiation are both positive and negative. Beneficial effects includes the synthesis of vitamin D3 and the stimulation of the immune system, the endogenous circadian rhythm. Adverse effects on the eye and skin, are exemplified. The tissues defence systems and reinforcing preventive measures are described. In PART NINE the basics of rules and regulations are summarised, commented and discussed. The control of short term and long term risks is explained. The common procedure in standard setting starts with a study of the effects of high expo-
261
sure. Permissible levels are set with a margin to the dangerous. Human exposure at work, animal experiments, laboratory tests are classical first sources of information. Accidents and disasters often trigger new efforts. Here the guidelines and standards are exemplified and explained from different risk patterns such as thermal response, neurological disorders, tumour development, genetic models. Standard setting bodies are named and the most common radiation quantities and units defined such as absorbed dose, quality factor, dose equivalent and radiation weighting factors. It is noted that it takes time to update rules and regulations according to recent research findings. Part nine verifies this: several of the rules referred to were outdated before the book reached the reader. To summarise: this is a book accounting massive knowledge and numerous facts. The author’s individual preferences can be traced in the texts. In 30 boxes basic or topical issues are condensed to the benefit of the reader. Actually, this book is the last one in a series of three. In 1997 the Scandinavian Publisher, Oslo, with the ILO, Geneva, as a copublisher, published two extensive volumes covering all the classic work-related health issues. (The Workplace I: Fundamentals of Health, Safety and Welfare, 998 pp. The Workplace II: 860 pp. Didactic examples from major industries and corporations). With this third volume, Radiation, the driving force behind, Dr Dag Brune, has completed a life long ambition of high dignity. Hopefully these three volumes are to be found side by side in many book-shelves throughout over the world. Gideon Gerhardsson Professor emeritus, Tantogatan 71, SE-118 42 Stockholm, Sweden