[BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Robert L. Park 1 5 April 2011

[Robert Park]

WHAT?S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 15 Apr 2011   Washington, DC

1. NUCLEAR RADIATION: BEYOND THE LINEAR-NO-THRESHOLD MODEL.
On Tuesday Japan raised the severity rating of the Fukushima nuclear crisis 
to 7, putting it on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.  Although Japan 
is releasing few details, you can safely conclude that radiation is really 
bad; beyond that you're on your own.  The most up-to-date and comprehensive 
risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-
level ionizing radiation are in the 2006 Biologic Effect of Ionizing 
Radiation Report of the National Academies (BEIR VII).  The only data base 
we have is from victims of massive exposures at Hiroshima and Chernobyl. 
The report relies on the linear-no-threshold model to estimate the risk 
from multiple exposures at much lower levels, such as airliner crews.  This 
is not only wrong, they know it's wrong.  A DNA repair process is 
constantly at work in human cells repairing DNA damage from sources of 
ionizing radiation, including UV light and cosmic radiation.  There is not 
much choice but to ignore the repair process and assume a linear model 
which greatly overstates the risk from multiple exposures.  A panel of 
experts concluded that that, "the preponderance of evidence indicates that 
there will be some risk even at low doses."

2. MICROWAVE RADIATION: DO CELL PHONES CAUSE BRAIN CANCER?
I've been living in the past, grousing about the failure of "the media" to 
expose the public to the facts about cell phone radiation and cancer.    
That used to mean a trusted figure like Walter Cronkite on the evening 
news, a segment on 60 Minutes or Sunday Morning, and an in depth feature in 
the New York Times.  Television news is now kept busy keeping us informed 
about celebrities checking into rehab; print news now means an army of 
bloggers.  The best coverage of the cell phone thing so far was an article 
this week in the New York Times Magazine by Siddhartha Mukherjee, "Do Cell 
Phones Cause Brain Cancer?"  In the age of twittering I don't know if 
anyone still reads 17 page articles, but Mukherjee remains calm through it 
all and in the end concludes the evidence is far from convincing.  That's 
the way it is with epidemiology, always a little wishy-washy.  It's like 
deciding the winner of the Super Bowl by a show of hands from the crowd.

3. GAS PROBLEM? REPUBLICANS FAIL TO BLOCK EPA AUTHORITY.  
The authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate 
greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act would have been stripped 
by legislation that easily passed the Republican-controlled House a week 
ago.  The following day, however, the measure was defeated in the Senate.   
But no one is celebrating yet.  Republicans will now try to cut EPA funding 
to prevent money from being spent on the measure.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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