Peripheral blood cells among community residents living near nuclear powerplants

Information about hematopoieses as a result of exposure to very low levels of radiation is scarce. To investigate the human hematopoietic effect of ve ry low level radiation exposure, measurements of peripheral blood component s were performed among 3602 men and women, aged 35 and above, living in a c ommunity near two nuclear power installations in Chinshan, Taiwan. The radi ation level that each individual was exposed to was represented by a surrog ate level, '1/D-1i(2), + 1/D-2i(2)', a transformed distance from each indiv idual's residence to the two power plants D-1 and D-2. In addition to compa ring average hematology measurements, multiple regression analyses were don e to include age, gender, smoking, drinking status and the surrogate radiat ion exposure level as independent variables. Univariate and bivariate analy ses showed that the hematology measurements had significant associations wi th age, gender, smoking or drinking. The multiple regression analyses revea led that significant positive associations with '1/D-1i(2) + 1/D-2i(2), wer e found for hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet, white blood cell and red bloo d cell. The platelet count might increase for 208.7 X 10(3)/mul if the expo sure from the nuclear plants increased by one exposure unit. This type of a ssociation implies that those who lived closer to the nuclear power install ation had a higher blood cell count; we suspect that this could be a type o f radiation hormesis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.