Since 1985 it has been known that whole body exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation from radon gas in American homes reduced lung cancer death rates [1]. Since 2004 it has been known that twenty years of whole body exposure to about 40 mSv/yr of ionizing radiation, from radio Cobalt in rebar of Taiwanese apartment buildings, reduced cancer death rates and deaths from all causes, as well as birth defects [2].

On the other hand, our National Academy of Sciences warns us that even extremely low doses of ionizing radiation, can cause cancer [3] based on the LNT hypothesis which lacks supporting data. Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists used this linear extrapolation of risk model to predict an upper estimate of the additional risk of cancer due to exposure to 20 mSv/yr of this radiation [4].  They calculated the additional risk to be 0.2%. This is a small addition to the 42% risk Japanese already face from “natural causes”. They noted that this estimate is expected to be high by a factor of 2 to 10 because a dose received over a year should have less of an impact than an instantaneous dose. Consequently the LNT hypothesis itself forecasts a negligibly small additional risk of children in Fukushima acquiring cancer in later life if they are exposed to 20 mSv/yr in schools.

 Our medical establishment has proven that  X-rays,  focused on small areas of our bodies, can damage cells and cause cancer. Unfortunately, this fact is obscuring what is probably the most important medical discovery of the 20^th century: That a low dose of ionizing radiation distributed over the whole body during a long period of time stimulates our immune  and  DNA repair systems and that we need more of it than we are getting for optimum health. In other words, we are UNDEREXPOSED as Ed Hiserodt tells us in his book with that name!!

Why would our National Academy of Sciences provide us with a half truth? Is it promoting politically modified science to serve political purposes? For example we have laws which require the removal of Radon, which can reduce lung cancer death rates, from our homes. We have politicians whose supporters do not want us to have access to thousands of years of low cost electrical power. We have a medical establishment which would lose $billions a year if Americans didn’t get so many cancers and if a simple low cost cure were available.

Incidentally there is an approved and effective low dose, whole body X - ray treatment for non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, based on Harvard Medical School studies in 1975 and 1977. It is not often used because, according to an authority at the National Institutes of Health, “it is too easy”.

1. Cohen, B.L. Health Physics (1995) 68.pp 157-174
2. Chen, W. N., et al, (2004) J. Am. Phys. Surg. 9, No. 1 Spring pp6-10
3. BEIR VII, National Academy of Sciences, 2006
4. Buongiorno, J ,et al,  MIT-NSP-TR-025 REV. 1, 26 July 2011

JACK PHILLIPS – 12 November 2011