Broad analysis of many radiation studies finds no exposure
threshold that precludes harm to life Even the very lowest
levels of radiation are harmful to life, scientists have
concluded in the Cambridge Philosophical Society’s journal
Biological Reviews. Reporting the results of a wide-ranging
analysis of 46 peer-reviewed studies published over the past 40
years, researchers from the University of South Carolina and the
University of Paris-Sud found that variation in low-level,
natural background radiation had small, but highly statistically
significant, negative effects on DNA as well as several measures
of health. “When you’re looking at such small effect sizes, the
size of the population you need to study is huge,” said co-
author Timothy Mousseau, a biologist in the College of Arts and
Sciences at the University of South Carolina. “Pooling across
multiple studies, in multiple areas, and in a rigorous
statistical manner provides a tool to really get at these
questions about low-level radiation.” Mousseau and