Biomarkers of radiation in the environment: report from Armenia Workshop in November 2017

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorCresswell, Ten_AU
dc.contributor.authorTsakanova, Gen_AU
dc.contributor.authorWood, MDen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-11T06:00:47Zen_AU
dc.date.available2022-07-11T06:00:47Zen_AU
dc.date.issued2018-11-06en_AU
dc.date.statistics2022-06-30en_AU
dc.description.abstractRadiation protection of wildlife (animals and plants) has improved over the last two decades with the development of a range of tools and approaches for assessing the impacts of radiation exposure to wildlife. While established radiation benchmarks for wildlife derived from controlled laboratory studies generally protect against both internal and external radiation exposure, recent studies suggest that radiation effects in the environment may be observed at doses below current benchmark values. it is often challenging to characterise wildlife radiation exposure accurately, especially for animals within heterogeneously contaminated environments. Biomarkers have the potential to inform exposure characterisation and impact evaluation; here we define biomarker as “A measurable biological response that provides information on the extent of radiation exposure that has occurred and/or the impact of that exposure." To advance the field of biomarkers of radiation in the environment (BRITE), a workshop was organised in Yerevan, Armenia in November 2017, which brought together more than 40 international scientists from a broad range of disciplines including environmental protection, radiation metrology, radiogenetics, radiobiology and radioecology. Supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), this workshop enabled knowledge exchange between leading scientists within these discipline areas, who have research interests aligned with biomarker development. This presentation synthesises the outcomes of this workshop, describing the current state of the art and proposing future research priorities for the development of BRITE. Topics discussed at the BRITE workshop included: (i) biomarker development — what we define as ‘low-dose’, how low we can go with current radiation metrology techniques and how novel use of techniques and datasets can advance biomarker research; (2) how low doses affect biological systems and how predictable the dose-effect relationship is; (3) relative effectiveness of biomarkers for risk evaluation — including whether they work for ‘low-dose’ exposures and whether there are ‘dual use’ biomarkers that inform on both exposure and impact; (4) biomarker use in the environment - whether the current biomarkers are radiation-specific or will respond to non-radiological stressors and whether we need different biomarkers for assessing population-level impacts; (5) key lessons can we learn from human research to support BRITE; and (6) biomarker use and responses — considering how biomarker use could be operationalised from a regulatory/accident response perspective. Several research priorities in the field of BRITE were identified: (1) understanding the difference between dose rate and total dose over the lifetime of the organism and associated dose-response relationships; (2) a need to study the same species across multiple environments with different levels of background radiation in the context of biomarker response; (3) prove causality of radiation-specific biomarkers under a scenario of multiple stressors; and (4) a requirement to focus on a limited set of organisms for biomarker development and screen sensitivity of ecologically-relevant species (e.g. keystone or ecosystem engineer species).en_AU
dc.identifier.citationCresswell, T., Tsakanova, G., & Wood, M. (2018). Biomarkers of radiation in the environment: report from Armenia Workshop in November 2017. Paper presented to the SPERA Conference 2018, "Bringing environmental radioactivity research to Western Australia", Perth, Western Australia, 6 - 9 November 2018. (pp. 44-45).en_AU
dc.identifier.conferenceenddate9 November 2018en_AU
dc.identifier.conferencenameSPERA Conference 2018, 'Bringing environmental radioactivity research to Western Australia'en_AU
dc.identifier.conferenceplacePerth, Western Australiaen_AU
dc.identifier.conferencestartdate6 November 2018en_AU
dc.identifier.pagination44-45en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://apo.ansto.gov.au/dspace/handle/10238/13352en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherSouth Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Associationen_AU
dc.subjectEnvironmenten_AU
dc.subjectPollutionen_AU
dc.subjectWild animalsen_AU
dc.subjectLaboratoriesen_AU
dc.subjectRadioecologyen_AU
dc.subjectNATOen_AU
dc.subjectDose ratesen_AU
dc.titleBiomarkers of radiation in the environment: report from Armenia Workshop in November 2017en_AU
dc.typeConference Abstracten_AU
Files
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.63 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Conference Publications