Radiation Exposure and Risk
Ionizing radiation damages living things and contaminates the environment, sometimes permanently. Studies have shown increases in cancer around nuclear facilities and uranium mines. Radiation mutates genes which can cause genetic damage across generations.
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Dahr Jamail reports at Al Jazeera that medical doctors far removed from Fukushima Daiichi's radioactivity spewing triple meltdown "have begun to see increased nosebleeds, stubborn cases of diarrhoea, and flu-like symptoms in children." Children are significantly more susceptible to radioactivity's hazards than adults. Helen Caldicott, Beyond Nuclear's founding president, is quoted extensively in the article.
Chart showing where various radionuclides concentrate in human body (see link at right for larger sized chart)A post at Forbes.com reports that researchers at University of California-San Diego detected significantly increased concentrations of radioactive Sulfur-35 in air, which they concluded had blown to California from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns. Radioactive Sulfur-35 is known to concentrate in human testicles. A chart of radionuclides shows where other radioactive toxins concentrate in the human body. While an L.A. Times post downplays the health significance of the radioactive Sulfur-35 fallout for Californians, the same Forbes reporter earlier wrote about the debate on such fallout's health risks. After all, the BEIR 7 report reaffirmed that any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk. That is, there is no "safe" level of exposure to radioactivity.
"The Fukushima Prefectural Government decided on July 24 to provide lifetime thyroid gland tests for some 360,000 prefectural residents aged 18 and under to help detect thyroid cancer triggered by radiation from the crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
'The free tests will be launched in October. Eligible residents will be tested once every two years until the age of 20, and once every five years thereafter. The prefectural government's move is said to be unprecedented." The Mainichi Daily News
"...an international team of a dozen researchers...are here to study the ecosystem that was left behind after the 1986 accident.
"They come here to find out what the impacts are of a nuclear accident on the life that is left behind.
"The team's latest studies on birds suggest that the contamination is linked to some unusual genetic effects.
"One member of the team, biologist Gier Rudolfsen from the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, has been focusing on how the male birds' reproductive organs might be affected.
"The constant unzipping and replication of DNA required to produce millions of sperm cells each day means there are many opportunities for the biological assembly line to be broken." See BBC Nature for more detail and videos.
It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of Dr. Rudi Nussbaum, who died in Holland after a fall. Rudi was an avowed pacifist and Holocaust survivor and an expert on the health effects of radiation exposure. As his longtime friend, Lloyd Marbet writes: "His work as a Professor Emeritus of Physics and Environmental Science at Portland State University was instrumental in raising alarm over the health effects of radiation exposure. He wrote numerous papers on this subject and participated in gathering valuable information on workers and civilians that were exposed to radiation at Hanford and in surrounding communities, for which he became a vocal advocate for environmental justice. He helped bring the famous epidemiologist, Alice Stewart, to Portland, and promoted her life story. You can watch a short video interview with Rudi below.
August 19, 2011