The Effects of Radiation on Mammals

Too Long; Didn't Read

Although genetic findings on such comparatively simple creatures as fruit flies and bacteria seem to apply generally to all forms of life, it seems unsafe to rely on these findings completely in anything as important as possible genetic damage to man through radiation. During the 1950s and 1960s, therefore, there have been important studies on mice, particularly by W. L. Russell at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. While not as short-lived or as fecund as fruit flies, mice can nevertheless produce enough young over a reasonable period of time to yield statistically useful results. Experimenters have worked with hundreds of thousands of offspring born of mice that have been irradiated with gamma rays and X rays in different amounts and at different intensities, as well as with additional hundreds of thousands born to mice that were not irradiated.