Protection of entire lifecycle from radiation is needed to ensure future human generations.
Main Article Content
Abstract
This editorial is offered to those who are interested in science-based radiation protection. A long historical frame is offered for the advent and application of fission and the resulting wide exposure of communities to ionizing radiation. Findings are reviewed: disproportionate harm to female bodies compared to male bodies, and that the difference in outcome is strongly tied to exposures in early childhood is the occasion to invoke our lifecycle as the appropriate focus for radiation protection. Citations of expert work and the author"s findings that radiation"s impacts are not uniform across our lifecycle, make a case for adopting a new Reference Individual as an efficient means to better protect our lifecycle.
To protect our future, the entire lifecycle must be protected, and so the new Reference is best if both a child, and female, in order to be maximally protective.
Centering protection on life stage of greatest harm is insufficient unless the model is applied universally, not only to girls. The frame of Reference Girl is also offered as a means to engage, and incorporate, new findings on radiation"s impacts on human health. These views point to work that is to be done, and the author commends the rising generations in research settings step up to meet these opportunities.
Keywords:
Early childhood exposure, Female radio sensitivity, Ionizing radiation, Lifecycle vulnerability, Public health policy, Radiation protection, Radiation safety standards, Reference Individual
Article Details
How to Cite
OLSON, Mary.
Protection of entire lifecycle from radiation is needed to ensure future human generations..
Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 13, n. 12, dec. 2025.
ISSN 2375-1924.
Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/7137>. Date accessed: 02 jan. 2026.
doi: https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v13i12.7137.
Section
Editorial
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2024.111355
https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1942-1944_pu/cp-1_critical.htm .
2. Fission product yields. International Atomic Energy Agency, Physics Section and Nuclear Data Sections. No posting date. Accessed on November 14, 2025.
https://www-nds.iaea.org/wimsd/fpyield.htm#:~:text=Fission%20product%20yields%20for%20U%2D235%2C%20U%2D236%2C%20U%2D237%2C%20U%2D238
3. Kułakowski Andrzej. The contribution of Marie Skłodowska-Curie to the development of modern oncology. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2011 Feb 18;400(6):1583–1586. doi:10.1007/s00216-011-4712-1.
4. Moore, Kate. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women. Source Books. 2017.
5. Energy, US Department of. The Manhattan Project, an interactive history. Posted by the US Office of Science and Technology (no posting date given). Accessed on November 14, 2025.
https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/index.htm.
6. Staff. ‘Atoms for Peace,’ cancer research and nuclear energy in a postwar America. Published Apr 7, 2020. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://thebulletin.org/virtual-tour/atoms-for-peace-cancer-research-and-nuclear-energy-in-a-postwar-america/
7. Garland, J.A., Wakeford, R. Atmospheric emissions from the Windscale accident of October 1957. Atmospheric Environment. Volume 41, Issue 18, June 2007, Pages 3904-3920.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.12.049.
8. Gap, The Committee to Bridge the. Santa Susana Field Laboratory, The Partial Nuclear Meltdown in July 1959. Publication date not listed. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/the-santa-susana-field-laboratory/#:~:text=The%20Partial%20Nuclear%20Meltdown%20in%20July%201959.
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https://co-cher.iarc.who.int/description-of-work/abstracts/fairlie-i-abstract-v2.pdf
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12. Commission, US Nuclear Regulatory. Reference Man. Posted March 09, 2021. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/reference-man
13. Olson, M. Personal participation in focus group on acceptable risk conducted by Andrew Armstrong, November, 1962 in Mount Carroll, IL.
14. Fernandez, T. Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Program. Date of publication missing. Accessed on November 14, 2025.
https://fernandez.house.gov/services/reca.htm
15. The definition of Reference Man was developed by the International Commission for Radiological Protection in 1974; it is: “Reference man is defined as being between 20-30 years of age, weighing 70 kg, is 170 cm in height, and lives in a climate with an average temperature of from 10o to 20o C. He is a Caucasian and is a Western European or North American in habitat and custom.” Report of the Task Group on Reference Man. [ICRP Publication] No. 23. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1975. Adopted October 1974. Page 4.
16. US NRC Policy Statement. 1990 (3 July). Below Regulatory Concern, Federal Register, Vol 55, No. 128: 27522—27537. https://archives.federalregister.gov/issue_slice/1990/7/3/27519-27535.pdf#page=4 .
17. Makhijani, A. Smith, B. Thorne, M. Science for the Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Standards. Posted on October, 2006. Last modified March, 2015. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://ieer.org/resource/depleted-uranium/science-vulnerable-setting-radiation/
18. Nichols, A. Olson, M. 2024. Gender and Ionizing Radiation Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm. United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. Posted November, 2024. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://unidir.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gender_and_ionizing_radiation_web.pdf
19. Olson, M. “Disproportionate Impact of Radiation and Radiation Regulation,” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 44, no. 2 (2019): 131–39,
https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2019.1603864
20. NAS-NRC. Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR VII – Phase 2. Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation, Board on Radiation Effects Research, National Research Council of the National Academies. National Academies Press. 2006. Pp 311.
21. Olson, M. “Atomic Radiation is More Harmful to Women,” Nuclear Information Resource Service. Posted 2011. Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/radiation/radhealth/radiationwomen.pdf.
22. “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” United Nations General Assembly, posted 7 July 2017. Accessed on November 15, 2025: 1,
https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n17/209/73/pdf/n1720973.pdf.
23. US Federal Code of Regulations. 2025 [1991]. “Standards for Protections Against Radiation,” chp. 10, part 20 (10cfr20). Accessed November 14, 2025.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-10/chapter-I/part-20
24. Stewart, A. Webb, J. Hewitt, D. A survey of childhood malignancies. Br Med J 1958; 1 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.5086.1495 (Published 28 June 1958)
25. Körblein, A. Statistical modeling of trends in infant mortality after atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. May 18, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284482
26. Kaltofen, M. Vieira, C. Garshick, E. et al. Soil and Indoor Radionuclides Related to the Plymouth Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant Area. ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE Volume 00, Number 00, 2025. DOI:10.1177/15579018251371131.
27. Kaltofen, M., and P. Plato. Absorbed Dose Rates and Biological Consequences of Discrete Alpha-emitting Particles Embedded in Tissue. Applied Radiation and Isotopes. 2024. 210: 111355.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2024.111355