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The cancers started in earnest in beagles exposed to radiation doses above 200 centigrays (cGgy) and, in beagles exposed to doses higher than 2800 cGys, 100% developed tumours. In the control group of beagles, who weren’t exposed to radiation, the lung cancer rate was 18%.
But the reassessment also made a surprising finding – beagles who received low doses contracted fewer cancers than beagles who weren’t irradiated and beagles who received very low doses — in the range of 8 cGy to 22 cGy — came down with no lung tumours at all.
“These statistics indicate the likelihood that low doses of alpha-particle radiation protected against and reduced the incidence of lung cancer relative to the controls,” reported the researchers, based at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, one of the Department of Energy’s 10 national laboratories.
Recently, the government decided to reassess the old data...
As expected, the study back then found that plutonium alpha particles when inhaled led to lung cancers, and the more that was inhaled, the greater the number of cancers.
These statistics indicate the likelihood that low doses of alpha-particle radiation protected against and reduced the incidence of lung cancer relative to the controls.