Petkau effect

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The Petkau effect is the hypothesis that low doses of ionizing radiation have a more negative effect on the organism than would be assumed with a linear dose-effect relationship .

Abram Petkau published the first research results in 1972, according to which a lower total dose is required over a longer period of time to break up cell membranes with a lower radiation dose rate. In 1977 at the latest, this connection was called the Petkau effect , and in 1985 Ralph Graeub used it in a book title.

In the opinion of most radiation protection experts, a linear dose-response relationship is a conservative overestimation of the dangers of ionizing radiation, whereby the ability of cells to repair genetic damage is ignored for safety reasons. Diametrically opposed to the Petkau effect is the hypothesis of radiation hormesis , which assumes a health-promoting effect of small doses of radiation.

Petkau's experiments are described as “not applicable” for statements on the dose-effect relationship, since they were carried out on dead organic material.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Petkau: "Effect of 22Na + on a phospholipid membrane". Health Physics (1972) 22 (3): 239. doi: 10.1097 / 00004032-197203000-00004
  2. ^ Negotiations of the Swiss Society for Natural Sciences: Actes de la Société helvétique des sciences naturelles. Atti della Società elvetiva di scienze naturali . Birkhäuser, 1977, p. 267.
  3. ↑ Ralph Graeub: The Petkau Effect and our bright future. Zytglogge 1985. ISBN 3-7296-0222-5
  4. ↑ a b M. Tubiana, LE Feinendegen, C. Yang, JM Kaminski: The linear no-threshold relationship is inconsistent with radiation biologic and experimental data. In: Radiology. Volume 251, number 1, April 2009, pp. 13-22, doi: 10.1148 / radiol.2511080671 , PMID 19332842 , PMC 2663584 (free full text).
  5. ↑ The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection , International Commission on Radiological Protection , accessed on July 31, 2015.
  6. ↑ Bernd Diekmann, Klaus Heinloth: Energy: Physical principles of their generation, conversion and use . Springer-Verlag, April 17, 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-01595-6 , p. 238.
  7. ↑ Hedi Fritz-Niggli: On the so-called Petkau effect , in: Vierteljahrsschrlft der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich 1986, 131/3: 219–220. ( PDF ).