The Inverse Dose-Rate Effect and the Extrapolation of Radon Risk Estimates from Exposures of Miners to Low-Level Exposures in Homes

Abstract

This letter is written in response to a paper in which the author discusses the inverse dose-rate dependence of oncogenic transformation by high-LET radiation. The author asserts that, as a consequence, the extrapolation of results from miners exposed to high levels of radon daughters could overestimate the risk due to environmental exposures. By using a model increased cell sensitivity in one part of the cell cycle, the author assumes an inverse dose-rate effect should occur only at high doses, but the author of this letter points out that this does not imply a lower risk per unit dose at low doses. According to this letter, the existence of an inverse dose-rate effect for high-LET radiation provides no grounds for projecting lower lung cancer risks per unit exposure at environmental radon levels than at the higher radon level in mines. Failure to adjust for any inverse dose-rate effect in the studies of miners can only lead to an underestimation of the environmental risk.