Low-dose effects hypothesis and observations on NPP personal

In the modern world the use of various sources of ionizing radiation is nearly ubiquitous. They have numerous applications in industry, medicine, science, agriculture, etc. Radiation doses to workers nevertheless are commensurable to the natural background exposure. Published data on the health effects of occupational radiation exposure are often contradictory. Addressing the issue of "negative" (bystander effects, genomic instability) and "positive" (adaptive response, radiation hormesis) effects of low doses is important and has a significant social and economic impact. In this paper we summarize the results of our extensive monitoring of nuclear power plant (NPP) staff. We believe it is a cohort suitable for analysis of health effects at low doses, because of their good medical and dosimetric control. Our results rather support the idea of absence of adverse health effects in NPP workers. (author)