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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
Natural background radioactive carbon and the natural death rate of people
1gealeksandr@narod.ru
Abstract:
A brief analysis of the known data on the potential danger of radiocarbon incorporation into DNA structure shows that the great genetic importance of transmutational transformations of DNA-incorporated 14C is theoretically and experimentally proved. This effect exists both in huge and small radiation doses (similar to doses of 14C natural background radiation). Therefore, the human death rate can be assumed to be dependent on natural and anthropogenous fluctuations of atmospheric 14C. Calculation methods of the age parameter dynamics of the natural human death rate are offered. It is shown that when calculating the parameters of the natural death rate, the use of Gompertz's formula is reasonable provided that the data on the general death rate are taken for the age interval "60 to 85 years." The ratios reflecting the regular and casual errors of the parameters R and a of Gompertz's equation, caused by people's casual deaths, were determined. A comparison of the historical dynamics of people's natural death rates in the last 150 years with the variations of 14C of the natural background during the same period showed that these are coordinated phenomena, the strong correlation of which indicates the possibility of their functional dependence. The 14C-concentration increase in an organism is the result of its increase in the surrounding biospheric composition, causing an increase in the natural death rate and vice versa: The increase of a person's life expectancy is caused by a decrease of 14C concentration.
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