The influence of very small doses of alpha radiation on the stability of erythrocytes

Dear editor, We have read with interest the article by Kaczmarska et al. (2017) entitled “The influence of very small doses of alpha radiation on the stability of erythrocytes” that is published in the Microscopy Research and Technique 2016; 1–13. Kaczmarska et al. in their article investigated the influence of low doses of a radiation on the stability of human erythrocytes isolated from healthy and diabetic patients. The authors showed that alpha radiation influences the stability of the erythrocyte membrane even at doses as low as 0.2–4 mGy. However, they stated that these modifications did not cause any significant changes in the ability of the hemoglobin to bind oxygen. Although the paper published by Kaczmarska et al. addresses a very challenging issue, it has some shortcomings. The first shortcoming of this paper comes from its very small sample size and the possibility of inclusion of individuals with higher than normal levels of susceptibility to radiation. It is worth noting that individuals have significant differences in their susceptibility to radiation (Schnarr, Dayes, Sathya, & Boreham, 2007). Another shortcoming of this paper comes from this point that the authors did not correctly report the highest levels of global radon concentrations. The authors state, “Samples were exposed to a radiation for various time periods, from 5 to 45 min, and under different radon concentrations, from about 600 to 2,500 Bq/m. These doses are only from 2 to 8 times higher than those reported for the elevated indoor Rn levels, which were found to be as high as 300 Bq/m in some regions. Over the past years, our laboratories at the Ionizing and Nonionizing Radiation Protection Research Center (INIRPRC) have focused on fields such as high background radiation areas (HBRAs) and radon prone areas. Studies performed in radon prone areas reveal that radon can accumulate in residential buildings at surprisingly high levels. Indoor radon concentrations in some regions of high background radiation areas of Ramsar, a city in northern Iran, are up to 31 kBq/m (Sohrabi, 2013). These radon concentrations are much higher than the values reported earlier (Mortazavi, Ghiassi-Nejad, & Ikushima, 2002; Mortazavi, Ghiassi-Nejad, & Rezaiean, 2005).