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The Challenges Of Defining Hormesis In Epidemiological Studies: The Case Of Radiation Hormesis, Ivo Iavicoli, Luca Fontana, Davide Guarino, Martina Laudiero, Edward J. Calabrese

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publication Series

In the current radiation protection system, preventive measures and occupational exposure limits for controlling occupational exposure to ionizing radiation are based on the linear no-threshold extrapolation model. However, currently an increasing body of evidence indicates that this paradigm predicts very poorly biological responses in the low-dose exposure region. In addition, several in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated the presence of hormetic dose response curves correlated to ionizing radiation low exposure. In this regard, it is noteworthy that also the findings of different epidemiological studies, conducted in different categories of occupationally exposed workers (e.g., healthcare, nuclear industrial and aircrew workers), …