The issue of exposure to residual radiation of A-bomb survivors with estimates of very low primary radiation dose

Excerpt

The challenging publication by Masaru Miyao and colleagues in the latest issue of Environmental Health Preventive Medicine [1] attracted the attention of the mass media, and the results were reported sensationally by some newspapers; the headlines of The Mainichi (4 August 2008) and The Yomiuri (5 August 2008), respectively, read “A high cancer mortality even in A-bomb survivors exposed to low-dose radiation Hiroshima A-bomb. Up to 2.7 times higher than the non-exposed. Survey by Nagoya University and others” and “Hiroshima A-bomb. A high cancer mortality even in A-bomb survivors exposed to extremely low dose radiation. Survey by Nagoya University and others. Death from leukemia in male was 3 times higher than the non-exposed”. Regrettably, however, the Watanabe et al. article [1] includes several defects, which calls into question their results and, hence, their conclusions. …