Radiation hormesis — fact or fiction?

Deriving from the Greek verbhormein, which means to stimulate and excite, hormesis literally refers to any kind of stimulation and excitation. As a medical and geomedical term (though of unsettled status) it has a more restricted meaning however, indicating merely the putative or real stimulatory and beneficial effects observed when a biological system is exposed to a low dose of an agent known to be toxic or hazardous at a significantly larger dose. Depending on the type of stimulatory agent, one can speak of chemical or physical hormesis, radiation hormesis being a member of the latter group. The present paper reviews and evaluates the history and origins of the concept of radiation hormesis and its present status — fact or fiction. It is concluded that despite the numerous, sometimes undeniably strong, individual pieces of evidence that have been presented in favour of this phenomenon, the bulk of the evidence is so far not strong enough to establish it as a scientifically proven fact. It is also evident that, instead of speaking of radiation hormesis as an entity, one should pay attention separately to the effects of alpha, beta and gamma radiation, the deleterious and possible beneficial hormetic effects being different in each case.     

Acidification of groundwater in water-filled gravel pits -- a new environmental and geomedical threat

Swimmers and users of motor boats frequenting old, water-filled gravel pits in Kiiminki, Northern Finland, found in August 1993 that they were suffering from painful irritation of the eyes and that their boats had developed a finely polished surface on their aluminium hulls, evidently due to the corrosive action of the water. Subsequent measurements carried out by the water authority showed that the pH of the water in some of the pits was extremely low, reaching a value of 3.4 at its lowest. To find out the causes of the abnormally low pH values, the present authors began systematic measurements of the pH and determination of the chemical composition (Si, Al, Ca, Mg, K, Na, Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cd, Cl^-, NO₃ ^-, SO₄ ^2-) of the water in 23 gravel pits. In addition, a series of laboratory experiments was carried out to examine the interaction of water with samples of the soil and bedrock of the area to evaluate the role of this process as a possible cause of the acidification. The results show that the reaction of water with the moderately to intensively weathered sulphide and jarosite-bearing black schists, typical of the bedrock of the area, can bring about aqueous solutions similar in pH and sulphate--nitrate ratios to those found naturally in the gravel pits. The contribution of other possible mechanisms, e.g. acidic precipitation as such or combined with enhanced evaporation, the possible use of the pits as dumping sites for acidic waste or the flow or seepage of acidic peat-bog waters into the pits from the surrounding wetlands, cannot be ruled out entirely, but their contribution seems to be of minor importance. Since the concentrations of several heavy metals (notably Pb, Cd, Ni, Fe and Mn) and of sulphate and aluminium has increased in the pit water as a result of the acidification process and exceed the norms laid down in the EU Drinking Water Directive, acidification of water in gravel pits due to the oxidation of sulphides must be regarded as a new, serious environmental and geomedical threat which has so far remained poorly known or unrecognised.