Ionizing radiation is the stuff that gives greenies the willies. We are talking good old fashioned radioactivity - the stuff that nuclear reactors produce.
Turns out that there is a major body of science that suggests that small amounts of radiation are actually very beneficial to you. Of course, large amounts are lethal but current policy treats all radiation as bad.
Fortunately, this is up for a change - from the Federal Register:
Linear No-Threshold Model and Standards for Protection Against Radiation
SUMMARY: On June 23, 2015, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested public comment on three petitions for rulemaking (PRM) requesting that the NRC amend its “Standards for Protection Against Radiation” regulations and change the basis of those regulations from the linear no-threshold model of radiation protection to the radiation hormesis model. The public comment period was originally scheduled to close on September 8, 2015. The NRC is extending the public comment period to allow more time for members of the public to develop and submit their comments.
Wikipedia has a writeup on Radiation Hormesis :
Radiation hormesis
Radiation hormesis is the hypothesis that low doses of ionizing radiation (within the region of and just above natural background levels) are beneficial, stimulating the activation of repair mechanisms that protect against disease, that are not activated in absence of ionizing radiation. The reserve repair mechanisms are hypothesized to be sufficiently effective when stimulated as to not only cancel the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation but also inhibit disease not related to radiation exposure (see hormesis).
The New York Times has a decent article on this:
When Radiation Isn’t the Real Risk
This spring, four years after the nuclear accident at Fukushima, a small group of scientists met in Tokyo to evaluate the deadly aftermath.
No one has been killed or sickened by the radiation — a point confirmed last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Even among Fukushima workers, the number of additional cancer cases in coming years is expected to be so low as to be undetectable, a blip impossible to discern against the statistical background noise.
But about 1,600 people died from the stress of the evacuation — one that some scientists believe was not justified by the relatively moderate radiation levels at the Japanese nuclear plant.
Much more at the article. We evolved in a mildly radioactive environment - it seems silly that in the millions of years, we have not found a way to adapt or use this low level radiation to our cellular advantage.
