[Long-term effects of chronic irradiation of rats at different dose rates].

Chronic exposure to ionizing radiation at dose-rates of 1.7 to 13.5 cGy/day has some distinctive features among which the development of radiation affection at the dose rate of 13.5 cGy/day is the main one. At lesser dose rates no qualitative changes in the causes of the animals' death were noted while their quantitative relationship was impaired. The increase in the tumor occurrence was registered at the dose-rate of 3.5 cGy/day. The average life of animals in all groups under study was much shorter than in the controls.