Linear No Threshold Obituary (Jay Lehr, Heartland Institute)

Link: https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/central-theory-behind-radiationregulation-demolished-by-research-find Please see above link for original article, embedded hyperlinks and comments.

Jay Lehr, Ph.D. is science director at The Heartland Institute, an independent nonprofit organization based in Chicago. He is an internationally renowned speaker, scientist, and author who has testified before Congress on dozens of occasions on environmental issues, and consulted with nearly every agency of the federal government, as well as many foreign countries.

He is the author of more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 30 books. He is editor of Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns, McGraw-Hill’s Handbook on Environmental Science, Health and Technology (2000); Wiley’s Remediation Technologies Handbook (2004); the Environmental Instrumentation and Analysis Handbook (2005), the six-volume Water Encyclopedia (Wiley Interscience, 2005); and Wiley Interscience's Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications (2011).

Dr. Lehr has spoken in front of thousands of audiences on topics ranging from global warming and biotechnology, to business management and health and physical fitness.

He was featured in Parachute Magazine in March 2010 for setting a new world record for having jumped from an airplane each and every month for 32 years.

Central Theory Behind Radiation Regulation Demolished by Research Find March 28, 2017

By Jay Lehr New research shows people exposed to low-doses of radiation, contrary to the assumptions behind the regulatory standards of U.S. agencies, are not at increased risk of developing cancer.

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The idea cancer can be induced by low doses of ionizing radiation has been very controversial since the 1970s.

Scientific and regulatory bodies currently estimate the risk of low doses by extrapolating directly (linearly) from the risk known to exist from high doses. They assume there is no threshold of exposure to radiation below which cancer might not be caused and that a low dose of radiation might have a protective effect called hormesis.

This theory, the linear no-threshold model (LNT), has been used to establish radiation regulations for many decades, despite the fact hundreds of studies over the years have called the claim into question.

Discovery of the original studies, which many previously believed to be lost and upon which LNT was established, has overturned the flawed theory exposure to a single particle of radiation could lead to cancer. Early research indicating there is no minimum safe threshold for exposure to radiation led the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to mistakenly adopt LNT for cancer risk assessment. The effects of that decision for subsequent health and safety regulation cannot be overstated.

Based on NAS’ recommendations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other regulatory agencies, and the medical community have worked under the assumption even small radiation doses should be avoided, no matter how great the cost, in almost all instances, because the risk of radiation exposure could lead to cancer.

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Utilizing LNT as the guideline, the use of radiation in medicine has been unnecessarily restricted in instances in which broader use, sometimes as a preventative measure, could have improved health outcomes.

Employing LNT as a standard for regulation has also increased the cost of government regulations by billions of dollars. The safety margins built into nuclear power plants to prevent exposure to small doses of radiation, expensive safety protocols and technologies required for environmental clean-ups, and radon regulations based on LNT unnecessarily raise the cost of environmental clean-ups, spark unnecessary fears in homeowners, and in the case of nuclear plants, hamper construction by making their costs exorbitant.

Scientifically Unethical Claims In a series of articles published in various peer-reviewed scientific journals, Calabrese shows the original studies that served as the basis for the LNT were seriously flawed.

For instance, the studies extrapolated from the health effects of radiation exposure to abnormal populations of fruit flies and mice to estimate the effects of radiation on human populations, which is scientifically unjustifiable and unethical.

Calabrese’s research reconstructs the history of LNT, the work of leaders of the radiation-genetics community of the 1940s through the 1960s, and how NAS, citing its own work, recommended the United States switch from a threshold model to a linear model for risk assessment in 1956. The previous threshold model found there were safe doses of exposure to radiation, meaning under that model, it was not expected persons exposed to low doses of radiation would develop cancer at unusual rates. The increased cancer risk emerges when thresholds of exposure at high doses of radiation are surpassed.

Ideological Biases, Deliberate Deception Calabrese’s newest article focuses on risk assessment activities from the early 1970s to the present. His previous research showed the scientific researchers pushing LNT theory were guided by profound ideological biases that led to a series of documented deceptions, obfuscations, and scientific misconduct. The scientific and regulatory communities uncritically accepted this misinformation, and it continues to guide regulatory actions today.

A significant question facing society, elected officials, and regulatory agencies is how will they respond to the fact numerous regulations are based on the mistaken adoption of LNT as the standard for exposure to radiation. Calabrese’s research shows the emperor has no clothes. By adopting this standard, NAS and regulatory agencies have placed the American people in a compromised position, adversely affecting their health and economy and their trust in the scientific community.

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Edward J. Calabrese, Ph.D. (edwardc@schoolph.umass.edu) is a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of MassachusettsAmherst. Jay Lehr, Ph.D. (jlehr@heartland.org) is science director at The Heartland Institute.

INTERNET INFO Edward J. Calabrese, “Obituary Notice: LNT Dead at 89 years, a Life in the Spotlight,�

Environmental Research, February 24, 2017: https://www.heartland.org/publicationsresources/publications/obituary-notice-lnt-dead-at-89-years-a-life-in-the-spotlight

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