Is Radiation Actually Good For Some of Us?

Exposure limits based on Reference Man set by federal agencies, along with guidelines from advisory organizations worldwide, have yet to catch up with the strange realities now being revealed.This title is a tantalizingly deceptive representation of what is in this well-written and -researched article, free of industry polemic and not afraid to address the complex nature of radiation damage. This article reviews the latest science on radiation exposure, saying that reference man, the model used to determine radiation damage to people, is "passe" and that the evidence of health effects from the Japan atomic bombings is no longer adequate to represent the complexities of radiation's impacts on health. With new evidence of harm eroding central assumptions, "Limits formerly considered safe seem less and less so...by the age of 10, most people will have accumulated enough exposure from all sources to be at some risk."

"...prenatal exposure at the rate of 1.5 millisieverts a year could cause birth defects and even stillbirths...[meaning that the current] risk models lead to 'considerably underestimated health risks' at [lower doses]." Miller-McCune