Lethal radiation doses

Bunte salts have bacterial, insecticidal, and fungicidal properties, and are also used as chelating agents (qv) or surfactants (qv) (97,98). Bunte salts have been tested for preirradiation protection for mammals exposed to lethal radiation doses (99,100) (see Radioprotectiveagents). 

The final column presents the radius of 50% mortality from fallout 1 hour after the explosion. Of all of the threats described, fallout is the hardest to predict because of the influence of local, regional, or even global weather patterns. The mushroom cloud can rise into the atmosphere as far as 80,000 feet, where wind and rain influence the time and location for fallout to occur.2 Individuals several miles from ground zero and well outside any radius presented in Table 5.1 can receive significant or even lethal radiation doses from fallout. However, while the air blast, thermal burns, and initial radiation are threats in all directions, fallout is a threat downwind from ground zero. Wind speed and direction vary at different altitudes, and it is safest to assume that fallout is a potential threat in all directions from ground zero. Individuals outside the blast zone generally will have several minutes to an hour or more to seek shelter before fallout arrives. 

Nausea and vomiting (prodromal syndrome—if experienced shortly after exposure the patient has probably received a lethal radiation dose). 

Even patients receiving a lethal radiation dose can be helped. Painkillers and antibiotics can help to make a patient comfortable and to help them survive until their family can be found. 

E. Lymphocytes not detectable. The patient has received a super-lethal radiation dose, and survival beyond two weeks is unlikely. 

Levin, S.G., Young, R.W., and Stohier, R.L., Estimation of median human lethal radiation dose computed from data of reinforced concrete structmes in Nagasaki, Japan, Health Phys.,63> 5), 522, 1992. 

FIGURE 2 Range of acute lethal radiation dose to biota. [Adapted from United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) (1996). Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, United Nations Publication Sales No. E.96.IX.3, United Nations, New York.]... 

DNA strand breaks, induced by exposure to chemicals or ionizing radiation stimulate poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activity (1, 2). The resultant protein modifications have been postulated to comprise an important step in the DNA repair process (3). Inhibitors of the polymerase have been shown to sensitize human fibroblasts (4) and certain tumor cells (5) to ionizing radiation and to inhibit the repair of potentially lethal radiation injury (6, 7). That the response of the tumor cell lines vary, with some showing sensitivity to inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation and irradiation while others do not, suggested a need for detailed investigation of the ADP-ribosylation process in these tumor cell lines. In the present study we report the quantitative variations in protein-bound mono(ADP-ribose) levels as well as poly(ADP-ribose) pol)unerase activities and cellular NAD levels of various tumor cells. To this end, we also describe die development and characterization of polyclonal antisera to mono(ADP-ribose) and its potential use as a probe for studies of ADP-ribosylation. 

Actually, of course, a sense of security has nothing whatever to do with actual safety. For example, there s nothing like a good, solid lethal dose of morphine to make a man s worries and fears ease away. A cat might well curl up comfortably on a nice, warm mass of radioactive matter, thermally content while the gamma radiation tore it to pieces. 

The first report of the interaction of cisplatin with radiation was in 1971 when the effect of cisplatin on the post-irradiation lethality of mice after irradiation with X-rays was reported [72]. A recent review [52] complements the earlier one of Douple and Wchmond [73]. The general points to be made are that the ability to modify radiation damage does not parallel the antitumour activity of platinum complexes and that the most active antitumour agents do not necessarily demonstrate potentiation. Indeed, trans isomers are also good potentiators despite their lack of antitumour effect. 

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