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Why get involved

 

Listed below are some reasons why you should get involved and support the XLNT Foundation.

 

 

 

Individuals should get involved, to reduce their chance of being diagnosed with cancer:    

Cancer adversely impacts a large number of people every year. Whereas there has been some progress in reducing some of the cancers in the past fifty years, the cancer mortality rate continues to be high (see figure below) and the war on cancer has not been won (Hanahan, 2014).  

Low-dose radiation exposures, when they have occurred in the past, have resulted in large reduction of cancer mortality. Hence, it would be logical to test the use of low-dose radiation for reducing cancers, since the traditional approaches have not been sufficiently successful. However, any such testing in clinical trials would not be possible while the LNT model is accepted and used by the governments. Hence, if you are an individual interested in reducing the risk of cancer, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

Figure legend:

LNT model Prediction - Using BEIR VII Report (NRC, 2006)

Taiwan - Residents of radio-contaminated apartments in Taiwan (Hwang, 2006)

NSWS - Radiation workers in Nuclear Shipyard Worker Study (Sponsler, 2005) 

British Radiologists - British Radiologists who entered service during the period 1955-1979 (Berrington, 2001)

Mayak - Evacuated residents of villages near Mayak Nulcear Weapons Facility (Kostyuchenko, 1994)

 

Note: Click here for an explanation of the plotted data points

Cancer patients (present and future) should get involved, in order to reduce the high cost and adverse side effects of cancer treatments:   

One of the consequences of cancer diagnosis is the deep impact it has on the finances because of the soaring cost of cancer treatments (Yabroff, 2015). Another concern about the present cancer treatments are the adverse side effects, both short-term and long-term. Low-dose radiation treatments can potentially address both these concerns because such treatments would be less expensive to administer and clinical trials have indicated few side effects from the treatments (Sakamoto, 2004). Further clinical trials using low-dose radiation are needed to test and optimize the treatments before they can be used widely. The LNT model is a major hindrance to performing such clinical trials, and so eliminating the use of the LNT model would facilitate the clinical trials. Therefore, present and future cancer patients should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation, in order to be able to explore the potential of lower cost cancer treatments with much reduced side effects.

Patients (present and future) should get involved, for more accurate diagnosis of illnesses:  

The misguided cancer concerns due to low-dose radiation, such as from CT scans, can adversely affect patients' health in multiple ways (Brody, 2014):

  (1) Patients/parents may refuse the indicated CT scans (Boutis, 2013) due to the misguided concerns

  (2) Doctors may not order the needed CT scans because of the misguided cancer concerns (Pandharipande, 2013)  

  (3) CT scans may have poor image quality due to being performed with reduced radiation dose, due to misguided radiation concerns, making it harder to diagnose diseases (Goske, 2013)

    Patients would not even know that items (2) and (3) above are occurring. 

   Hence, if you are interested in accurate diagnoses of diseases, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

 

Radiology professionals should get involved so that they can perform radiology examinations efficiently

The concerns regarding the smallest exposures to radiation based on the LNT model have resulted in excessive regulations for radiological imaging facilities with increased amounts of work, documentation requirements, etc.  Reducing the regulations can improve productivity of  the imaging facilities. Hence, if you are a radiology professional interested in performing radiological examinations efficiently, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

 

Nuclear power industry and its advocates should get involved in order to reduce public objections to nuclear power plants, reduce their costs, and to enable widespread utilization of nuclear power

The LNT model based fear and concerns have resulted in cancellation of planned nuclear power plants, considerable delays in construction of nuclear power plants, and increased the cost for construction of nuclear power plants.  Eliminating the LNT model would reduce the fear and concerns regarding nuclear power plants, make them more acceptable, and reduce the cost of construction and operation of nuclear power plants. Hence, if you are part of the nuclear power industry or its advocates, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

 

The public should get involved in order to have clean, safe, and inexpensive  power

Whereas there are many options for generating energy, the safest, cleanest, and least expensive source of energy are nuclear power plants. See (Markandya, 2007) and the figure below from (Conca, 2012). 

A vivid example of the relative safety of nuclear power plants is the Fukushima experience, where , no one died from radiation exposures and no one is expected to die from radiation effects, in spite of the nuclear power plant accidents being major ones. In comparison, there were 8 deaths and 70 injuries from a recent accident involving local natural gas pipelines in New York. If this neighborhood had utilized energy from nuclear power plants rather than from natural gas, these deaths and injuries could likely have been prevented.

 

In spite of its safety record, nuclear power is the most feared mode of power generation and there are serious objections to the siting of nuclear power plants. Eliminating the LNT model would reduce the fear of nuclear power plants and enable access to clean, cheap, safe, reliable, and plentiful power. Hence, if you are a member of the public interested in having access to cheap, clean, safe source of power, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

 

Residents of developing countries should get involved in order to have reliable, safe, clean power and greater economic development

One of the major constraints for economic development of developing countries is the lack of reliable power. The fear and concerns resulting from the LNT model have prevented widespread adoption of nuclear power in developing countries. Though coal power plants are commonly in use, they do not provide sufficient power, and the pollution from coal causes a large number of illnesses and deaths. Elimination of the LNT model would facilitate increased use of nuclear power without low-dose radiation concerns and would reduce power interruptions, improve productivity and quality of life in developing countries. Hence, if you are resident of a developing country and are interested in accelerating its development by having access to a cheap, safe, plentiful source of power, you should support the efforts of the XLNT Foundation.

 

Thus, we encourage you to get involved, and lend your support to the XLNT Foundation in whatever way possible, so that you can benefit and the entire world can benefit from the optimum use of radiation in many different areas.

 

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