Friends
Much of the data on the effect of radon in humans comes from epidemiological studies, often masked by confounding factors such as age, smoking, life style, etc.. In order to construct dose-response curves and calculate reliable Radiobiological Effectiveness (RBE) values for alpha exposures required for risk estimation in radiation protection, there is a need to conduct experiments using in vitro irradiation methods and quantify DNA damage induced by Radon. I would lke to share my research in this area. We have designed a simple and novel method to irradiate human blood lymphocytes in vitro using radon gas emanating from a solid radium source. The difficulties in delivering and estimating exact activity concentrations have been handled in a unique and safe way. Such a method was used to score chromosome aberrations induced by radon and progeny. Various types of aberrations such as dicentrics, centric rings and excess acentric fragments were found to increase significantly with radon dose. The lowest radon dose capable of inducing significant chromosomal damage in human lymphocytes in the present study was 0.03 mGy (360 kBq/m3).
Details of the experiments and results can be found in the following publications Let me know if you need to read the full papers.
1. Zareena Hamza, P.R. Vivek Kumar; R.K. Jeevanram, R. Santhanam, B.Danalakshmi, Mary N. Mohankumar. A simple method to irradiate blood
cells in vitro with radon gas. Radiat Prot Dosimetry 130(3):343-50.2008
(published online Mar 4 2008).
2. Zareena Hamza, Mary N. Mohankumar (2009). Cytogenetic Damage In HumanBlood Lymphocytes Exposed In Vitro To Radon And Its Progeny. Mutat.Res 661: 1-9 (published online)
United States