Overestimation of the cardiovascular consequences of low-dose radiation exposures

Abstract

This study focuses on radioactive contamination in the Urals, where the consequences were more severe in the long term than those after the Chernobyl accident. The difference is that the latter was a technogenic catastrophe, while the former was radioactive contamination tolerated for 70 years, with several accidents in between. In earlier publications by Russian researchers, no cancer frequency elevation was reported after exposures of <0.5 Sv or generally in the populations exposed to low doses. Later, the same scientists started to claim similar relative risks for cancer and other diseases among exposed people in the Urals and atomic bomb survivors in Japan. Apparently, there was an ideological shift in 2005 - 2007. Trimming of statistics was not unusual in the former Soviet Union. Potential motives included stirring antinuclear protests in other countries and the strangulation of nuclear energy aimed at boosting fossil fuel prices.

Keywords

Techa river / East Urals Radioactive trace / Ionizing radiation / Cerebrovascular diseases / Cardiovascular diseases

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no competing interests.

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