- Reaction score
- 149
The long-term genetic damage to cells from low-level alpha radiation, which you report in "British and U.S. Researchers Find a New Form of Radiation Injury" (news article, Feb. 20) was described by R. T. Ravenholt in a letter published July 28, 1982, in The New England Journal of Medicine: Tests showed that polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation and is in tobacco smoke, resulted in malignancies throughout the body when "carried by the systemic circulation to every tissue and cell causing mutations of cellular genetic structures."
The American public, he believed, has been exposed to far more radiation from tobacco smoke than any other source. The National Council of Radiation Protection estimated in 1977 that smokers consuming 30 cigarettes a day absorbed 8 rems of alpha radiation a year, more than that permitted for nuclear industry workers.
I mentioned this unavailingly in letters to Scientific American (September 1980) and Environment (May 1985), also citing R. T. Ravenholt. Perhaps with the confirmation by Eric Wright in England and John Little at Harvard that alpha radiation can result in delayed cellular mutations, the Ravenholt findings will receive more attention. JULIAN KANE Professor of Geology, Hofstra U. Great Neck, L.I., Feb. 20, 1992
www.nytimes.com
Whend did they start puting Uranium into cigarettes?
The American public, he believed, has been exposed to far more radiation from tobacco smoke than any other source. The National Council of Radiation Protection estimated in 1977 that smokers consuming 30 cigarettes a day absorbed 8 rems of alpha radiation a year, more than that permitted for nuclear industry workers.
I mentioned this unavailingly in letters to Scientific American (September 1980) and Environment (May 1985), also citing R. T. Ravenholt. Perhaps with the confirmation by Eric Wright in England and John Little at Harvard that alpha radiation can result in delayed cellular mutations, the Ravenholt findings will receive more attention. JULIAN KANE Professor of Geology, Hofstra U. Great Neck, L.I., Feb. 20, 1992
Opinion | Radiation in Smoking Can Damage Genes (Published 1992)
Whend did they start puting Uranium into cigarettes?
Last edited by a moderator:
