Finland: Government Closes Radiation Biology Lab Dariusz Leszczynski, Washington Times Communities, Jul 25, 2013 "...the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) ... has closed down the Radiation Biology Laboratory before any plan was developed how to transfer it to the university environment." "With radiation research moved to university settings, the scientists who handle it now, will likely stop doing it because of the lack of funding." Funding for radiation research is scarce not only in Finland, where it is currently nearly non existent, but also throughout the European Union ... funding bodies consider our current knowledge about the effects of radiation to be sufficient and, therefore, further basic research on radiation effects receives low funding priority." "... the situation in Finland is not an exception but rather follows the world-wide trend of the governments, including the USA, saving money on projects important to the health of the citizens, and low priority given by funding agencies to radiation research." "We know a lot about the acute effects of large doses of radiation. However, we know very little about the very low doses to which people are exposed in their everyday life, from gas--radon seeping from the ground to house interiors (ionizing radiation) and wireless communication-associated radiation (non-ionizing radiation), for example. Our knowledge about the possible biological and health effects of exposures to low doses of radiation for long periods of time (several tens of years) is too limited to make thorough health risk evaluations. Research in the area of long term low dose effects is very much needed to determine whether our radiation protection standards are sufficient or whether they should be changed." bit.ly/167Gfdk
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 22:11:55 +0000