Because of the use of radiation in cancer therapy, the risk of nuclear contamination from power plants, military conflicts, and terrorism, there is a compelling scientific and public health interest in the effects of environmental radiation exposure on brain function, in particular hippocampal function and learning and memory. Previous studies have emphasized changes in learning and memory foll...

Deep fear of nuclear radiation is widespread, yet research on radiation’s biological effects finds that the level of alarm far exceeds the actual danger. This “radiophobia” has roots in the fear of nuclear weapons, but has been significantly reinforced and inflamed by accidents at nuclear power plants. Radiophobia does far more harm to human health than the radiation released by nuclear acciden...

The 1986 April 26th Chernobyl event was the worst nuclear power accident--it killed 31 people. Its significance was exaggerated immensely because of the pervasive fear of ionizing radiation that has been indoctrinated in all of humanity. In reality, our environment includes radiation from natural sources, varying widely in intensity, to which all living things have adapted. The effect of radiat...

The public attitude about irradiation of food has improved considerably. However, reinforced by media misinformation and visions of Hiroshima, many conjure up images of a mushroom cloud when they think of radiation. But most people now consider the many benefits that properly controlled radiation brings to society. The term “gnosophobia” has been used to describe the disease of “fear of the unk...

Work performed under Memorandum of Agreement between Argonne National laboratory and Harvard University *A short version of this report will be published in Environment Internationcal, INTRODUCTION From the earliest times men have studied the world around them and tried to find causes for their successes, their ailments and their tragedies. In the 2Oth century, many technological triumphs have ...

Purpose/Results. Ionizing radiation is carcinogenic and the induction of a second malignancy is a serious potential long-term complication of radiotherapy. The incidence of radiation-induced sarcomas was evaluated from many large epidemiological surveys of long-term cancer survivors reported in the literature over the past 30 years and only one case was found for every 1000 patients irradiated....

Personal reflections on radiation hormesis for the past 50 years are presented. The causes of ignoring and rejections of this phenomenon by international and national bodies and by radiation protection establishment are analyzed. The opposition against nuclear weapons and preparations for nuclear war was probably the main factor in inducing the concern for adverse effects of low doses of ionizi...