The BEIR VII report - June 2005, Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of    Ionizing Radiation, can be read full text at nap.edu.  Despite its finding of “no    safe dose,” it lacks scientific credibility.  It shows two pie graphs taken from an    obsolete 1987 National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements report    (No.93), indicating natural background radiation accounts for 82% of total human    dose, or 3 mSv annually, and 18% from man-made sources, or 0.66 mSv.  58% is    attributed to medical X ray and 21% from nuclear medicine, a total dose per    person of 0.52 mSv, a gross understatement of current practice.

BEIR VII adopts the “linear-no-threshold” (LNT) model, used by all major radiologic organizations.  It rejects the supralinear, or biphasic, model, based on the hypothesis that several low doses or split doses of ionizing radiation have a greater effect than the same dose given acutely (see Busby, ed.-- 2003 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: The Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes, Green Audit Press, UK).   BEIR VIIÂ’s rejection was hardly unexpected since most of the committee members have a history of downplaying health risks from low dose radiation.  Numerous supralinear studies were excluded in its report and were not included on the reference list, further evidence of scientific jugglery and bias.

BEIR VII redefines low dose as  100 mSv, exactly half of the 200 mSv definition in UNSCEAR 2000 (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation).  Historically, low dose was defined as single exposures under 500 mSv and cumulative dose in one year up to 1000 mSv.  Categorizing dose is further complicated by the fact that BEIR, UNSCEAR, and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) fail to differentiate between internal and external exposures.  The obvious reason for continuing to lower the low dose definition is that cancer and noncancer mortality and incidence rates are automatically reduced, a clever statistical stunt.

The report finds 2270 cases of non-fatal solid cancer and leukemia cases in a population of 100,000 exposed to 100 mSv (in the U.S.), a ratio of 1:44.  Excess deaths from the same exposure is 1140 per 100,000, or 1:87.7.  Using the BEIR linear-no-threshold model, the excess incidence from an exposure of only 10 mSv is 1:440 and the mortality rate is 1:877.  The high number of excess cases at these very low exposure levels presents convincing evidence of a cancer pandemic, something our cancer “experts” will never admit.  If you think that few persons are exposed to these doses, consider that there were more than 1.2 billion radiological procedures in the U.S. during 2004.  It is estimated that at least 2/3 of the total dose is delivered by computed tomography (CT scans) and a single body scan exposes the patient to 20 mSv (multiple scans are frequently prescribed).  Also consider incidence and mortality rates double in the 0-15 age-band.