Research project Combined exposures of different radiation qualities and radiation plus cigarette smoke
We have several projects to study the effect of combined exposure to radiations and to radiation plus cigarette smoke. The investigations are relevant to radiation protections because environmental and medical exposures often involve mixed components but the biological action of combined exposures is not well characterised.
People are often exposed to a combination of radiation types or to radiation plus chemical toxicants. The inresting question is if and how the single agents interact so that the combined exposure is stronger than the sum of the single agents. We have built unique facilities that allows exposing cells to mixed beams of alpha particles from 241Am sources and X-rays. We can expose cells acutely, simulating an accidental exposure or chronically, simulating natural of occupational exposures. A number of studies were carried out and we observe that, under many conditions, radiations interact. Within a large EU-funded project RadoNorm we study the mechanisms of combined exposure of radiation with cigarette smoke. Here focus is on alpha radiation emitted by the radon gas. We built an exposure facility where lung cells are exposed to a combination of radon and cigarette smoke. We also analyse the interaction of alpha and gamma radiation and the important component of cigarette smoke - nicotine.
