Radiations and Health

Abstract

A DOSE of radiation above the accepted tolerance limit of 0·5–1 roentgen per week presents hazards to the individual, notably those of sterility and cancer, and to his progeny—in the form of recessive mutations. The importance of the former effects has been recognized since the beginning of the century mainly as a result of the all too obvious injury to many of the early workers with radium and X-rays. The medical profession is therefore fully alive to these dangers. On the other hand, whereas the practitioner sees many examples of the effects of recessive mutations in man—the amaurotic familial idiot, the haemophiliac, the alcaptonuric—he is seldom, if ever, able clearly to relate these to radiation effects. Thus the matter of genetic damage stands outside the field of practical medicine, and indeed so far has been largely a theoretical concern of eugenics.