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Physics and AstronomyAstrophysics

Animal Studies of Life Shortening and Cancer Risk from Space Radiation

Authors: D. H. Wood; M. G. Yochmowitz; K. A. Hardy; Y. L. Salmon; SCHOOL OF AEROSPACE MEDICINE BROOKS AFB TX
Abstract:
The U.S. Air Force study of the delayed effects of single, total body exposures to simulated space radiation in rhesus monkeys is now in its 21st year. Observations on 301 irradiated and 57 age-matched control animals indicate that life expectancy loss from exposure to protons in the energy range encountered in the Van Allen belts and solar proton events can be expressed as a logarithmic function of the dose. The primary causes of life shortening are cancer and endometriosis (an abnormal proliferation of the lining of the uterus in females). Life shortening estimates permit comparison of the risk associated with space radiation exposures to be compared with that of other occupational and environmental hazards, thereby facilitating risk/benefit decisions in the planning and operational phases of manned space missions. Calculations of the relative risk of fatal cancers in the irradiated subjects reveal that the total body surface dose required to double the risk of death from cancer over a 20- year post exposure period varies with the linear energy transfer (LET) of the radiation. The ability to determine the integrated dose and LET spectrum in space radiation exposures of humans is, therefore, critical to the assessment of life time cancer risk. ANNOTATION: Reprint: Animal Studies of Life Shortening and Cancer Risk from Space Radiation.

Pages: 7
Report Date: 86
Report Number: A261381

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Keywords relating to this report:
*CANCER
*EXTRATERRESTRIAL RADIATION
*RADIATION EFFECTS
*RADIATION HAZARDS
AIR FORCE
BELTS
CASUALTIES
COMPARISON
DEATH
DECISION MAKING
DOSAGE
ENDOMETRIOSIS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FEMALES
HUMANS
LIFE EXPECTANCY_SERVICE LIFE_
LININGS
LOGARITHM FUNCTIONS
MANNED SPACECRAFT
NEOPLASMS
REPRINTS
RHESUS MONKEYS
RISK
SIMULATION
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR COSMIC RAYS
SOLAR DISTURBANCES
SPACE BIOLOGY
SPACE ENVIRONMENTS
SPACE FLIGHT
SPACE MISSIONS
SURFACES
UTERUS
VAN ALLEN RADIATION BELT
WHOLE BODY IRRADIATION
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