Journal of Clinical & Medical Case Reports
Commentary
Epidemiological Research with Special Reference to Nuclear Worker Studies: Commentary
Jargin SV*
Department of Pathology, People’s Friendship University of Russia, Russian Federation
Address for Correspondence:Sergei V. Jargin, People’s Friendship University of Russia, Clementovski per 6-82, 115184 Moscow, Russia; Tel: 7 495 9516788; Email: sjargin@mail.ru
Submission: 19 November, 2021
Accepted: 29 November, 2021
Published: 02 December, 2021
Copyright: © 2021 Jargin SV. This is an open access article distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Limitations of some epidemiological studies on low-dose lowrate
exposures to ionizing radiation include dose comparisons
disregarding natural radiation background, unfounded classification
of sporadic diseases as radiogenic and conclusions about causality
of dose-effect relationships. Other bias, confounders and inter-study
heterogeneity have been pointed out. Some dose-effect correlations
can be explained by a dose-dependent selection, self-selection and
recall bias. It can be reasonably assumed that individuals knowing
their higher doses would be more motivated to undergo medical
examinations being at the same time given more attention. Reported
dose-effect relationships between low-dose low-rate exposures
and non-neoplastic diseases call in question the causality of such
relationships for cancer detected by the same researchers. Reliable
evidence in regard to biological effects of low radiation doses can
be obtained in large-scale animal experiments with registration of life
duration. The monitoring of human populations exposed to low-dose
radiation is important but conclusions should be made with caution
considering potential bias and economical motives to strangulate
nuclear energy production in accordance with the interests of fossil
fuel producers. Of note, health burdens are the greatest for power
stations based on coal and oil; the burdens are smaller for natural gas
and still lower for the nuclear power. The same ranking applies for the
greenhouse gas emissions