Peripheral blood cells among community residents living near nuclear power plants

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2001-12, Vol.280 (1), p.165-172
• Main Authors: Lee, Yuan-Teh, Sung, Fung C., Lin, Ruey S., Hsu, Hsiu-Ching, Chien, Kuo-Liong, Yang, Chi-Yu, Chen, Wen Jone
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Air Pollutants, Radioactive - adverse effects; Biological and medical sciences; Biological effects of radiation; Blood cell counts; Blood Volume; Environmental Exposure; Erythrocyte Count; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hematocrit; Hematopoiesis; Humans; Leukocyte Count; Male; Middle Aged; Nuclear power; peripheral blood; Platelet Count; Power Plants; Radiation hormesis; Radiocontamination; Regression Analysis; Risk Assessment; Smoking; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/S0048-9697(01)00823-3

Information about hematopoieses as a result of exposure to very low levels of radiation is scarce. To investigate the human hematopoietic effect of very low level radiation exposure, measurements of peripheral blood components were performed among 3602 men and women, aged 35 and above, living in a community near two nuclear power installations in Chinshan, Taiwan. The radiation level that each individual was exposed to was represented by a surrogate level, ‘ 1 D 1i 2 + 1 D 2i 2 ’, a transformed distance from each individual's residence to the two power plants D 1 and D 2. In addition to comparing average hematology measurements, multiple regression analyses were done to include age, gender, smoking, drinking status and the surrogate radiation exposure level as independent variables. Univariate and bivariate analyses showed that the hematology measurements had significant associations with age, gender, smoking or drinking. The multiple regression analyses revealed that significant positive associations with ‘ 1 D 1i 2 + 1 D 2i 2 ’ were found for hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet, white blood cell and red blood cell. The platelet count might increase for 208.7×10 3/μl if the exposure from the nuclear plants increased by one exposure unit. This type of association implies that those who lived closer to the nuclear power installation had a higher blood cell count; we suspect that this could be a type of radiation hormesis.