Environmental gamma radiation: a comment (Letter to the Editor)

Editor, I read the recent publication by Toossi et al. with a great interest (1). Toossi et al. concluded that “Average gonad and bone marrow doses for North Khorasan, Boshehr and Hormozgan provinces were less than the corresponding values for normal area (2).” There are some facts on this report to be concerned. I agree that the detected levels might be high in the mentioned area, but the problem is whether this high dosage is an actual problematic phenomenon. First, the selection on small sites and samplings within a short period might not provide a good representative data on the actual situation in that area. Second, the difference in time of sample collection among different sites might contribute to difference in detected levels. The variation of the atmosphere might be a big factor to be mentioned. Third, the detected levels might not directly imply the risk for the people living in those areas since the people do not statically but dynamically lives from places to places. References: 1. Toossi MTB, Bayani SH, Yarahmadi M, Aghamir A, Jomehzadeh A, Parast MH, Tamjidi A (2009) Gonad, bone marrow and effective dose to the population of more than 90 towns and cities of Iran, arising from environmental gamma radiation. Iran J Radiat Res, 7 (1): 41- 47. 2. Nelson GA (2003) Fundamental space radiobiology. Gravit Space Biol Bull, 16 (2): 29- 36. N.B.: This comment has been sent to the corresponding author for reply. However, so far we did not receive any reply from the authors. We will post the reply from the authors in forthcoming issue of IJRR if received.