An estimate of the magnitude of random errors in the DS86 dosimetry from data on chromosome aberrations and severe epilation

An analysis of the proportion of cells with chromosome aberrations in cultured blood lymphocytes from A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki reveals that the dose-response relationship using DS86 assigned dose is significantly steeper in the subsample of individuals who reported severe epilation after the bombings than in those who did not report severe epilation. This effect is due either to random errors in the DS86 dose assignments or to individual differences in sensitivity to radiation, or to both. In this paper, working within a class of dosimetry error models, we estimate the magnitude of random dosimetry errors which would be required to account for all of the difference in the observed dose response between people who did and did not report severe epilation under the assumption that random dosimetry error is the only cause of the effect. We conclude that random dosimetry errors in the range 45 to 50% of true dose are necessary to explain completely the difference in dose response between the two epilation groups. We discuss evidence that the contribution of individual differences in radiation sensitivity to the observed epilation effect is likely to be small, so that random dosimetry errors may be the major cause of this effect.