Recent discoveries on the historical foundations of cancer risk assessment: Shedding light on the limits of LNT

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Sep 1:941:173676. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173676. Epub 2024 May 31.

Abstract

Within the past three years there has been a spate of historical discoveries by our research team on various different facets of the historical foundations of cancer risk assessment. This series of discoveries was stimulated by the creation of a 22-episode documentary of the historical foundations of cancer risk assessment by the US Health Physics Society and the need to provide documentation. This process yielded nearly two dozen distinct historical findings which have been published in numerous papers in the peer-reviewed literature. These discoveries are itemized and summarized in the present paper, along with the significance of each discovery within the historical context of ionizing radiation research and cancer risk assessment.

Keywords: Cancer; Hormesis; Ionizing radiation; LNT; Model; Research ethics.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • History, 20th Century
  • History, 21st Century
  • Humans
  • Neoplasms* / history
  • Radiation, Ionizing
  • Risk Assessment
  • United States