The Public Has a Right to Know
Will Fukushima Be Worse Than Chernobyl?
By Dr. JANETTE SHERMAN, MD
A little over six
months ago I wrote: " Given profound weather effects (earthquakes,
floods, tsunamis, etc.), human fallibility, and military conflicts, many
believe that it only a matter of time before there is another nuclear
catastrophe. Nuclear fallout knows no state or national boundaries, and
will contribute to increase in illnesses, decrease in intelligence, and
instability throughout the world. The economic costs of radioactive
pollution and care of contaminated citizens are staggering. No country
can maintain itself if its' citizens are economically, intellectually,
politically, and socially impoverished."
[My submission was rejected… too alarmist?]
While 25 years separates the sites and the events that led to the
catastrophes at Fukushima and Chernobyl, the effects will be very
similar – and will remain so for years to decades to centuries.
After Chernobyl, there was a delay in collecting and releasing
information. The nuclear industry and many governments are reluctant to
alarm the public, but the public has a right to know what the risks are
and if possible to avoid – as much as possible – those risks.
The science of radiobiology is not new. When we know the identity
of a radioisotope, we can predict how it will interact with living
matter – human, animal or plant. Decades of research have confirmed
that radioisotopes become deposited in various parts of living systems.
In humans, I-131 and I-129 concentrate in the thyroid, Cs-137 in soft tissue,
and Sr-90 in teeth and bones.
Key to understanding effects is the difference between external and
internal radiation. While external radiation, as from x-rays, neutron,
gamma and cosmic rays can harm and kill, internal radiation (alpha and
beta particles) when absorbed by ingestion and inhalation, releases
damaging energy in direct contact with tissues and cells.
There is serious concern for the workers at the Fukushima plant,
because of their proximity to the disabled reactors and to the fuel rods
that have lost their protective cover of water. Some of the Fukushima
workers, as with the "liquidators" at Chernobyl are exposed to dangerous
levels of gamma and neutron radiation.
Those not in close proximity to the those sources of radiation will
be spared some of the intense exposure, but will not escape the exposure
from radionuclides that emit alpha and beta particles, as well as gamma
radiation. These enter the bodies of humans by inhalation and
ingestion of food and water.
Of the Chernobyl "liquidators" the young and healthy men and women
who worked to stop the fires and to contain the release of radioactivity
from Chernobyl, by 2005, some 125,000 of the estimated total of 830,000
were dead (15%) mostly from circulatory, blood diseases and
malignancies.
Children born to liquidator families were seriously affected with
birth defects and thyroid diseases, including cancer, and loss of
intellect. But other children, based upon the research of multiple
researchers, it is estimated that in the heavily contaminated areas of
Belarus only 20% of children are considered healthy, placing an enormous
burden upon governmental resources to provide medical care and
education for those affected.
Many pro-nuclear critics have downplayed the risks from Chernobyl
attributing concerns to "radio-phobia" but documentation of disease is
not limited to the human population. With few exceptions, animal and
plant systems that were studied demonstrated structural abnormalities in
offspring, loss of tolerance and viability, and genetic changes. Wild
animals and plants did not drink alcohol, smoke or worry about
compensation.
When a radiation release occurs we do not know in advance the part
of the biosphere it will contaminate, the animals, plants, and people
that will be affected, nor the amount or duration of harm. In many
cases, damage is random, depending upon the health, age, and status of
development and the amount, kind, and variety of radioactive
contamination that reaches humans, animals and plants.
For this reason, open and transparent data must be collected and
maintained for all biological systems – human, animal, plant. We must
have international support of research on the consequences of the
Fukushima and support of Chernobyl research must continue in order to
mitigate the ongoing and increasing damage. Access to information must
be transparent and open to all, across all borders. The WHO must severe
its' cooperation with the IAEA, in place since 1959, and assume
independent responsibility in support of international health.
Given the emerging problems from the Fukushima nuclear plants and
the continuing and known problems caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe,
we must ask ourselves: before we commit ourselves to economic and
technologic support of nuclear energy, who, what and where are we
willing to sacrifice and for how long?
Janette D. Sherman, M. D. is the author of Life's Delicate Balance: Causes
and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Chemical Exposure and Disease, and is a
specialist in internal medicine and toxicology. She edited the book Chernobyl:
Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature,
written by A. V. Yablokov, V. B., Nesterenko and A. V. Nesterenko,
published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2009. Her primary
interest is the prevention of illness through public education. She can
be reached at: [email protected] and www.janettesherman.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/sherman03242011.html
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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