Ionizing radiation a cancer per dose model to assert that such activities cause several hundred cases of cancer per year, an application of the widely accepted Linear no-threshold model (LNT). The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends limiting artificial irradiation to the public to an average of 1 mSv (0.001 Sv) of effective dose per year, not including medical and occupational exposures. In a nuclear war, gamma rays from both the initial weapon explosion and fallout would be the sources of radiation exposure. Massive particles are a concern for astronauts outside the earth's magnetic field who would receive solar particles from solar
Biological effects of radiation on the epigenome for many cell divisions. One way this non-Mendelian mode of inheritance can be explained is through epigenetic mechanisms. Ionizing radiation exposure affects patterns of DNA methylation. Breast cancer cells treated with fractionated doses of ionizing radiation showed DNA hypomethylation at the various gene loci; dose fractionation refers to breaking down one dose of radiation into separate, smaller doses. Hypomethylation of these genes correlated with decreased expression of various DNMTs and methyl CpG binding proteins. LINE1 transposable elements have been identified as targets for ionizing radiation. The hypomethylation of LINE1 elements results in activation of the elements and thus an increase