Review and Evaluation of Updated Research on the Health Effects Associated with Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation

Potential health effects of low levels of radiation have predominantly been based on those effects observed at high levels of radiation. The authors have reviewed more than 200 percent publications in radiobiology and epidermiology related to low dose radiation and concluded that recent radiobiological studies at low-doses; that doses <100 mSv in a single exposure appear to be too small to allow epidermiological detection of statistically significant excess cancers in the presence of naturally occurring cancers; that low dose radiation research should to holistic, systems-based approaches to develop models that define the shape of the dose-response relationships at low doses; and that these results should be combined with the latest epidermiology to produce a comprehensive understanding of radiation effects that addresses both damage, likely with a linear effect, and response, possibly with non-linear consequences.