Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
National Radiation Protection Institute, Prague, Czech Republic.
Risk Anal. 2020 Feb;40(2):370-384. doi: 10.1111/risa.13385. Epub 2019 Aug 12.
After smoking, exposure to radon and its progeny is the second leading cause of lung cancer. The probability of inducing lung carcinomas by inhaled radon progeny depends on the deposited radiation dose, and is significantly affected by physiological and morphometric changes induced by smoking. Due to irritation of the airways, the inhalation of cigarette smoke leads to the hyperproduction of mucus. Two concurrent processes occur: on one hand, increased production of mucus protects the target cells against radiation damage; on the other hand, in the case of long-term smokers, a chronic lung obstruction develops, causing an increase in the radiation dose to the lungs. Depending on the duration and intensity of smoking, these processes contribute to the final radiation dose with different weights. The primary objective of this study was to investigate to what extent these smoke-induced changes can modify the resulting absorbed dose of inhaled radon progeny relative to healthy nonsmokers. Since the bronchial dose depends on the degree of lung tissue damage, we have used this dose as a tool for detecting the effects of smoking on the lung epithelium. In other words, the biological effect of radon served as a tracer of changes induced by smoking.
吸烟之后，氡及其子体暴露是肺癌的第二大主要病因。吸入的氡子体诱发肺癌的概率取决于沉积的辐射剂量，并且受到吸烟引起的生理和形态变化的显著影响。由于气道受到刺激，香烟烟雾的吸入会导致黏液过度产生。两个并发过程同时发生：一方面，黏液的大量产生保护靶细胞免受辐射损伤；另一方面，在长期吸烟者中，会发展为慢性肺部阻塞，导致肺部的辐射剂量增加。根据吸烟的持续时间和强度，这些过程以不同的权重对最终的辐射剂量做出贡献。本研究的主要目的是调查这些由吸烟引起的变化在多大程度上可以改变相对于健康不吸烟者吸入的氡子体的吸收剂量。由于支气管剂量取决于肺组织损伤的程度，因此我们将该剂量用作检测吸烟对肺上皮影响的工具。换句话说，氡的生物学效应是吸烟引起的变化的示踪剂。
