Atomic bomb survivors, life span study

The current health risks associated with exposure to low-dose radiation are extrapolated from high-dose data taken from the Life Span Study of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Currently, a linear no threshold extrapolation is recommended. The numerous technical reports and scientific papers about the Japanese A-bomb survivors were widely interpreted as showing that the effects of occupational exposures to radiation would be too small to detect in epidemiological studies. However, questions about the reliability of the A-bomb results were presented by Stewart and Kneale [2]. Their Oxford Childhood Study observed that children whose in utero exposures were as little as 10 to 20 mSv had 40% more childhood leukemias than those who were not exposed. No similar effects are reported in the A-bomb data. Of course, the finding of no effect is not a compelling argument for or against a safe dose. 

Beebe, G.W., Kato, H., and Land, C.E. (1978b). Life Span Study Report Mortality Experience of Atomic Bomb Survivors, 1950-74, RERF TR 1-77 (Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan). 

The Radiation Effects Research Foundation s Life Span Study of atomic bomb survivors has reported that for all solid tumours combined, there is clear evidence of a radiation dose-response relationship. Both excess relative risk and excess absolute risk are larger for individuals exposed as children than for those exposed as adults, and solid tumour risk continues to increase in later years (Kodama et al., 2003). Survivors of the atomic bombs also have increased risk of all kinds of solid tumours, including those of adult life, although the degree of susceptibility varies with age at the time of the bombings and is generally highest early in life. 

Life-span study (LSS). The ongoing study of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors at abcc/rerf. The base sample of the study consisted of 120,000 people, of whom 82,000 were exposed to radiation from the bombs, mostly low doses. Subsets of the life-span studies are still being utilized for abcc/rerf investigations. 

Semmens, E.O., Kopecky, K.J., Grant, E., et al., 2013. Relationship between anthropometric factors, radiation exposure, and colon cancer incidence in the life span study cohort of atomic bomb survivors. Cancer Causes Control 24 (1), 27-37. 

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