THE FUTURE OF
LOW DOSE RADIATION
RESEARCH IN THE
UNITED STATES
PROCEEDINGS OF A SYMPOSIUM
Ourania Kosti, Rapporteur
Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board
Division on Earth and Life Studies
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by contracts from the American College of Radiology (unnumbered contract), the American Society for Radiation Oncology (unnumbered contract), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Award #75D30119P04238), the Environmental Protection Agency (Award #EPA EP-C-14-005/668HERC19F0033), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (unnumbered contract), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (unnumbered contract), the Radiological Society of North America (unnumbered contract), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Award #HU00011910005), and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Award #31310018M0056). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-49771-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-49771-X
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25578
Additional copies of this publication are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2019 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. The Future of Low Dose Radiation Research in the United States: Proceedings of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25578.
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SYMPOSIUM PLANNING COMMITTEE1
JOE W. GRAY (Chair), Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon
RALPH ANDERSEN, Nuclear Energy Institute (retired), Washington, DC
JAMES A. BRINK, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
MICHAELA KREUZER, Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Neuherberg, Germany
DAVID B. RICHARDSON, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
GAYLE WOLOSCHAK, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Staff
OURANIA KOSTI, Study Director
TONI GREENLEAF, Financial Business Partner
DARLENE GROS, Senior Program Assistant
JORGE MENDOZA-TORRES, Senior Research Librarian
___________________
1 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s symposium planning committees are solely responsible for organizing the symposium, identifying topics, and choosing speakers. The responsibility for the published Proceedings of a Symposium rests with the rapporteur and the institution.
NUCLEAR AND RADIATION STUDIES BOARD
GEORGE APOSTOLAKIS (Chair), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (emeritus), Los Angeles, California
JAMES A. BRINK (Vice Chair), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
SALLY A. AMUNDSON, Columbia University, New York, New York
STEVEN M. BECKER, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
AMY BERRINGTON DE GONZÁLEZ, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
PAUL T. DICKMAN, Argonne National Laboratory, Washington, DC
TISSA H. ILLANGASEKARE, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado
BONNIE D. JENKINS, Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation, Washington, DC
ALLISON M. MACFARLANE, The George Washington University, Washington, DC
NANCY JO NICHOLAS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
R. JULIAN PRESTON, Environmental Protection Agency, Raleigh, North Carolina
HENRY D. ROYAL, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
WILLIAM H. TOBEY, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
SERGEY V. YUDINTSEV, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Staff
CHARLES D. FERGUSON, Director
JENNIFER HEIMBERG, Senior Program Officer
OURANIA KOSTI, Senior Program Officer
LAURA D. LLANOS, Financial Business Partner
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative Associate
DARLENE GROS, Senior Program Assistant
Reviewers
This Proceedings of a Symposium was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by JAMES CLEAVER, University of California, San Francisco (emeritus). He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteur and the National Academies.
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Contents
1.1 Low Dose Radiation Exposures and Risks
1.2 Implications of Low Dose Radiation Risk Uncertainties
1.3 Current Low Dose Radiation Research in the United States
1.4 Efforts to Revive the Low Dose Radiation Research Program
2 LOW DOSE RADIATION RESEARCH PROGRAMS
2.1 Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Past Low Dose Radiation Program, United States
2.2 Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Initiative (MELODI), Europe
2.3 Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), Japan
3 PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEED FOR A LOW DOSE RADIATION PROGRAM IN THE UNITED STATES
3.1.1 Department of Energy (DOE)
3.1.2 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
3.1.3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
3.1.4 Department of Defense (DoD)
3.1.5 Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
3.1.6 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
3.1.7 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
3.1.8 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC)
3.1.9 Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
3.1.10 Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD)
3.2.1 National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP)
3.2.2 Health Physics Society (HPS)
3.2.3 American Nuclear Society (ANS)
3.2.4 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
3.2.5 International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)
3.2.6 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)
3.2.7 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
4 CURRENT AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF LOW DOSE RADIATION RESEARCH
4.1.1 Research Activities at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF)
4.1.3 Environmental Exposure Studies
4.1.4 Medically Exposed Populations
4.2.1 Low Dose and Low Dose Rate Responses in Animals
4.3.1 Biomarkers for Molecular Epidemiological Studies
4.3.2 Technological Advancements
5 LESSONS LEARNED FROM COORDINATED RESEARCH IN OTHER FIELDS
5.1 Research on Health Effects of Air Pollution
5.1.1 Research on Airborne Particulate Matter
5.1.2 The Health Effects Institute
5.2 Large-Scale Biology Initiatives
5.2.1 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
6 SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS’ CONSIDERATIONS FOR A FUTURE LOW DOSE RADIATION RESEARCH PROGRAM
6.1 Possible Elements of a Low Dose Radiation Research Program
6.1.2 Appropriate Model for Organizing the Research
6.1.5 Multidisciplinary Research
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Acronyms and Abbreviations
| AAPM | American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
| ABCC | Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission |
| ALARA | as low as reasonably achievable |
| ANS | American Nuclear Society |
| ASTRO | American Society for Radiation Oncology |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
| cf | cell free |
| CI | confidence interval |
| CNL | Canadian Nuclear Laboratories |
| CRCPD | Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors |
| CT | computed tomography |
| DHS | Department of Homeland Security |
| DoD | Department of Defense |
| DOE | Department of Energy |
| DQO | Data Quality Objective |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency |
| EPRI | Electric Power Research Institute |
| ERR | excess relative risk |
| EV | extracellular vesicle |
| FDA | Food and Drug Administration |
| GAO | Government Accountability Office |
| HEI | Health Effects Institute |
| HPS | Health Physics Society |
| ICRP | International Commission on Radiological Protection |
| IES | Institute for Environmental Sciences |
| INWORKS | International Nuclear Workers Study |
| ISCORS | Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Standards |
| LET | linear energy transfer |
| LNT | linear no-threshold |
| LSS | Life Span Study |
| MELODI | Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Initiative |
| MEXT | Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology |
| mGy | milligray |
| mSv | millisieverts |
| NAS | National Academy of Sciences |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| NCI | National Cancer Institute |
| NCRP | National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements |
| NEA | Nuclear Energy Agency |
| NHGRI | National Human Genome Research Institute |
| NIOSH | National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health |
| NSTC | National Science and Technology Council |
| NURA | Northwestern University Radiation Tissue Archives |
| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| OSTP | Office of Science and Technology Policy |
| PM | particulate matter |
| PTA | primary template-directed single-cell whole genome amplification |
| RERF | Radiation Effects Research Foundation |
| SHARE | Social Sciences and Humanities |
| TCGA | The Cancer Genome Atlas |
| USNRC | U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
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