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LONG-TERM BIODOSIMETRY REDUX
- Source :
- Radiation Protection Dosimetry. 172:244-247
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2016.
-
Abstract
- This paper revisits and reiterates the needs, purposes and requirements of biodosimetric assays for long-term dose and health risk assessments. While the most crucial need for biodosimetric assays is to guide medical response for radiation accidents, the value of such techniques for improving our understanding of radiation health risk by supporting epidemiological (long-term health risk) studies is significant. As new cohorts of exposed persons are identified and new health risk studies are undertaken with the hopes that studying the exposed will result in a deeper understanding of radiation risk, the value of reliable dose reconstruction is underscored. The ultimate application of biodosimetry in long-term health risk studies would be to completely replace model-based dose reconstruction-a complex suite of methods for retrospectively estimating dose that is commonly fraught with large uncertainties due to the absence of important exposure-related information, as well as imperfect models. While biodosimetry could potentially supplant model-based doses, there are numerous limitations of presently available techniques that constrain their widespread application in health risk research, including limited ability to assess doses received far in the past, high cost, great inter-individual variability, invasiveness, higher than preferred detection limits and the inability to assess internal dose (for the most part). These limitations prevent the extensive application of biodosimetry to large cohorts and should be considered a challenge to researchers to develop new and more flexible techniques that meet the demands of long-term health risk research. Events in recent years, e.g. the Fukushima reactor accident and the increased threat of nuclear terrorism, underscore that any event that results in significant radiation exposures of a group of people will also produce a much larger population, exposed at lower levels, but that likewise needs (or demands) an exposure assessment. Hence, the needs for retrospective dose estimation are likely to be greater in the future. The value of biodosimetry can be considerably enhanced with the development of new or improved methods, particularly with suitability for application at long periods of time after exposure.
- Subjects :
- Paper
medicine.medical_specialty
Population
Redux
030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Biodosimetry
Radiation Monitoring
Environmental health
Epidemiology
Humans
Medicine
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging
Longitudinal Studies
education
Exposure assessment
education.field_of_study
Radiation
Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
business.industry
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Environmental Exposure
General Medicine
Environmental exposure
Population Surveillance
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Radiation monitoring
Biological Assay
business
Algorithms
Forecasting
Nuclear terrorism
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17423406 and 01448420
- Volume :
- 172
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Radiation Protection Dosimetry
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ea1d07162e75efeffe133009f13538d1