1. The class demonstration on radiation showed that: (Mark all correct answers)

2. Mark all answers corresponding to models currently accepted by scientists about the average annual exposure to (ionizing) radiation in the US.

3. According to currently accepted models of ionizing radiation, what is (are) the major reason(s) that the background level of ionizing radiation is higher in Denver than on the Gulf Coast?

4. An article in the New York Times discussed the fact that a person flying in an airplane receives an increased dose of radiation compared to a person standing on the ground. According to currently accepted models of radiation, what is (are) the major source(s) of this increased exposure?

5. Mark all of the following models of radiation that scientists currently accept. (We acknowledge that some of the models, though currently accepted, may be proven incorrect in the future.)

6. The survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are one of the most useful data sets available for predicting how much a small extra dose of radiation increases a person's lifetime chance of getting cancer. Mark all of the following models that scientists used to make these predictions.

7. Based on results from studies on the effects of radiation on cancer (or on karyotypes), most scientists accept which of the following models?

8. An experiment using mice shows that increasing the yearly dose of radiation by 2 mSv causes 1000 excess cancer deaths in a group of 10,000 rats over their lifetime. Another experiment shows that increasing the yearly dose of radiation by 0.5 mSv produces 250 excess cancer deaths in a group of 10,000 rats. Which of the following abstract models of the dose-response relation do these data reject?

9. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors comprise an important model in the study of radiation and cancer. Scientists use this model as a substitute for the experiments they would really like to do, but are unable to. Which of the following problems prevent scientists from doing the experiments that would produce better data that the Hiroshima/Nagasaki model? Mark only those problems explicitly discussed in class or in the notes.

10. As discussed in lecture, between 1980 and 1990, the understanding that scientists have of the carcinogenic (that is, cancer causing) effect of low doses of radiation changed considerably. Which of the following are correct statements about this change?

11. Which of the following models are important in understanding the health consequences of radiation received by residents of the U.S.:

 
Table of contents Chapter 8. Health Effects of Radiation
Copyright 1996-2000 Craig M. Pease & James J. Bull. All rights reserved.
301d@bull.biosci.utexas.edu