Downwinders

Last updated

Downwinders were individuals and communities in the intermountain West between the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges primarily in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah but also in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho who were exposed to radioactive contamination or nuclear fallout from atmospheric or underground nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents. [1] [2]

Contents

More generally, the term can also include those communities and individuals who are exposed to ionizing radiation and other emissions due to the regular production and maintenance of coal ash, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, nuclear waste, and geothermal energy. [3] In regions near U.S. nuclear sites, downwinders may be exposed to releases of radioactive materials into the environment that contaminate their groundwater systems, food chains, and the air they breathe. Some downwinders may have suffered acute exposure due to their involvement in uranium mining and nuclear experimentation. [4]

Several severe adverse health effects, such as an increased incidence of cancers, thyroid diseases, CNS neoplasms, and possibly female reproductive cancers that could lead to congenital malformations have been observed in Hanford, Washington, "downwind" communities exposed to nuclear fallout and radioactive contamination. [5] The impact of nuclear contamination on an individual is generally estimated as the result of the dose of radiation received and the duration of exposure, using the linear no-threshold model (LNT). Sex, age, race, culture, occupation, class, location, and simultaneous exposure to additional environmental toxins are also significant, but often overlooked, factors that contribute to the health effects on a particular "downwind" community. [6]

Nuclear testing

Between 1945 and 1980, the United States, the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, France and China exploded 504 nuclear devices in atmospheric tests at thirteen primary sites yielding the explosive equivalent of 440 megatons of TNT. Of these atmospheric tests, 330 were conducted by the United States. Accounting for all types of nuclear tests, official counts show that the United States has conducted 1,054 nuclear weapons tests to date, involving at least 1,151 nuclear devices, most of which occurred at Nevada Test Site and the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands, with ten other tests taking place at various locations in the United States, including Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico. There have been an estimated 2,000 nuclear tests conducted worldwide; the number of nuclear tests conducted by the United States alone is currently more than the sum of nuclear testing done by all other known nuclear states (the USSR, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea) combined. [7] [8]

These nuclear tests infused vast quantities of radioactive material into the world's atmosphere, resulting in widely dispersed radiation and its subsequent deposition as global fallout. [9]

Exposure

Aboveground nuclear explosions produce a characteristic mushroom cloud, which moves downwind as it reaches its stabilization height. Dispersion of the radioactive elements causes vertical and lateral cloud movement, spreading radioactive materials over adjacent regions. While the large particles settle nearby the site of the detonation, smaller particles and gases may be dispersed around the world. Additionally, some explosions injected radioactive material into the stratosphere, more than 10 kilometers above ground level, meaning it may float there for years before being subsequently deposited uniformly around the earth. Global fallout is the result, which exposes everything to an elevated level of man-made background radiation. While "downwinders" refers to those who live and work closest to the explosion site and are thus most acutely affected, there is a global effect of increased health risks due to ionizing radiation in the atmosphere. [9]

Health effects

The earliest concerns raised about the health effects of exposure to nuclear fallout had to do with fears of genetic alterations that may occur among the offspring of those most exposed. However, the observed inheritable effects of radiation exposure by groups with histories of acute risk are considered minimal compared with the significant increase in thyroid cancer, leukemia and certain solid tumors that have developed within a decade or more after exposure. As studies of biological samples (including bone, thyroid glands and other tissues) have been undertaken, it has become increasingly clear that specific radionuclides in fallout are implicated in fallout-related cancers and other late effects. [9]

Ionizing radiation contained in fallout from nuclear testing is especially damaging to dividing cells. For this reason, fetuses and infants are especially vulnerable to injury. Such cellular damage may later manifest as leukemia and other cancers in children. In 1958, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reported on fetal and infant deaths caused by radiation. [10]

In 1980, American popular weekly magazine People reported that from about 220 cast and crew who filmed in a 1956 movie, The Conqueror , on location near St. George, Utah, ninety-one had come down with cancer, and 50 had died of cancer. [11] Of these, forty-six had died of cancer by 1980. Among the cancer deaths were John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Susan Hayward, the stars of the film. [11] However, the lifetime odds of developing cancer for men in the U.S. population are 43 percent and the odds of dying of cancer are 23 percent (38 percent and 19 percent, respectively, for women). [12] This places the cancer mortality rate for the 220 primary cast and crew quite near the expected average, [13] but it needs to be noted that this statistic does not include the Native American Paiute extras in the film. [14]

Current status

After adopting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996, the U.S. and several other nuclear states pledged to stop nuclear testing. The United States Senate has not yet ratified the treaty, although it stopped testing in 1992. The final US test series was Operation Julin, in September 1992. [15] [16] Three countries have tested nuclear weapons since the CTBT opened for signature in 1996. India and Pakistan both carried out two sets of tests in 1998. North Korea carried out six announced tests, one each in 2006, 2009, 2013, two in 2016 and one in 2017. [17] [18] [19] [20]

In 2011, the US Senate designated January 27th as a national day of remembrance for Americans who, during the Cold War, worked and lived downwind from nuclear testing sites. [21]

For many years, Senator Ben Ray Luján and other members of Congress have attempted to get compensation for those affected by the Trinity test. [22] In 2023, after the film Oppenheimer brought renewed attention to the test, the United States Senate approved the New Mexico downwinders' inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act amendment. To become law, the bill would also need to be passed by the United States House of Representatives. [23]

Specific test sites

New Mexico

On July 16, 1945, the United States military conducted the word’s first test of an atom bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Code-named Trinity, this explosion also created the world’s first victims of an atom bomb: residents of New Mexico. [10]

Years before the test, scientists warned of the risks for civilians of atomic testing. In their memorandum of March 1940, Manhattan Project physicists Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls warned: “Owing to the spread of radioactive substances with the wind, the bomb could probably not be used without killing large numbers of civilians, and this may make it unsuitable as a weapon for use by this country.” At the very least, they suggested that “[I]t would be very important to have an organization which determines the exact extent of the danger area, by means of ionization measurements, so that people can be warned from entering it.” Federal officials for the most part ignored these warnings but a last minute small team to monitor some of the radiation was assembled. [10] “New Mexico residents were neither warned before the 1945 Trinity blast, informed of health hazards afterward, nor evacuated before, during, or after the test."

Nevada

Downwind exposure produced by Nevada Test Site. This map strongly suggests that there are some state-specific differences in reporting. US fallout exposure.png
Downwind exposure produced by Nevada Test Site. This map strongly suggests that there are some state-specific differences in reporting.

From 1951 – 1962, the Nevada Test Site (NTS) was a primary site used for both surface and above-ground nuclear testing, with 100 tests at or above ground level, all of which involved releases of significant amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Atmospheric testing was halted in 1958 after a testing moratorium was agreed upon with the Soviet Union. The Soviets broke the agreement in 1961, and both sides resumed testing. Two American test series followed: Operation Nougat, and then Operation Storax. The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty went into effect in 1963, banning all above ground testing. Further tests were underground, which, with the exception of a few test failures, did not release fallout. [15]

In the 1950s, people who lived in the vicinity of the NTS were encouraged to sit outside and watch the mushroom clouds that were created by nuclear bomb explosions. Many were given radiation badges to wear on their clothes, which the Atomic Energy Commission later collected to gather data about radiation levels.

In a report by the National Cancer Institute, released in 1997, it was determined that the nearly ninety atmospheric tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) left high levels of radioactive iodine-131 (5.5 exabecquerels, Ebq) across a large area of the continental United States, especially in the years 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1957. [24] The National Cancer Institute report estimates that doses received in these years are estimated to be large enough to produce 10,000 to 75,000 additional cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. [25] [26] A 1999 review of the 1997 report considered that their estimates of collective doses were in "good agreement" and "should provide confidence that the NCI estimate is not grossly under or over the actual value." [27] [28] A 2006 report, published by the Scientific Research Society, estimates that about 22,000 additional radiation-related cancers and 2,000 additional deaths from radiation-related leukemia are expected to occur in the United States because of external and internal radiation from both NTS and global fallout. [9] A 2010 report evaluating data on thyroid cancer incidence from 1973 to 2004 also supported a relationship between exposure from fallout and increased thyroid cancer incidence. [29]

Just ten tests out of over a thousand total tests at the Nevada Test Site contributed almost 50% of all exposure. US nuclear test exposure.png
Just ten tests out of over a thousand total tests at the Nevada Test Site contributed almost 50% of all exposure.

The threat of downwind exposure to radioactivity remaining at the Nevada Test Site from nuclear weapons tests was still an issue as late as 2007. The Pentagon planned to test a 700-ton ammonium nitrate-and-fuel oil "bunker buster" weapon. The planned "Divine Strake" test would have raised a large mushroom cloud of contaminated dust that could have blown toward population centers such as Las Vegas, Boise, Salt Lake City, and St. George, Utah. This project was cancelled in February 2007, in large part due to political pressure inspired by the threat of downwind exposure to radioactivity.

Hanford

While many downwinders were exposed to weapons testing, millions more have been affected by radioactive fallout due to U.S. sites engaged in the production of nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power. For example, Hanford is a former nuclear weapons production site located in south central Washington state, where the Washington state Department of Health collaborated with the citizen-led Hanford Health Information Network (HHIN) to publicize significant data about the health effects of Hanford's operations. Established in 1943, Hanford released radioactive materials into the air, water and soil, releases which largely resulted from the site's routine operation, though some were also due to accidents and intentional releases.

By February 1986, mounting citizen pressure forced the U.S. Department of Energy to release to the public 19,000 pages of previously unavailable historical documents about Hanford's operations. These reports revealed there had been radioactive materials released into the air and Columbia River. The reactors used large amounts of water from the river for cooling, which caused materials in the river water to become radioactive as they passed through the reactor. The water and the radioactive materials it contained were released into the river after passing through the reactors, thus contaminating both groundwater systems and aquatic animals downstream as far west as the Washington and Oregon coasts. [30]

The Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, an epidemiologic study of the relationship between estimated exposure doses to radioiodine and incidence of thyroid disease amongst Hanford's downwinders, led by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, was inconclusive. A consolidated lawsuit brought by two thousand Hanford downwinders for personal injury against the contractors that ran Hanford has been in the court system for many years. The defense in the litigation is fully funded by taxpayer dollars due to Price Anderson indemnification agreements. The first six bellwether plaintiffs went to trial in 2005, to test the legal issues applying to the remaining plaintiffs in the suit. [31] In October 2015, the Department of Energy resolved the final cases. The DOE paid more than $60 million in legal fees and $7 million in damages. [32]

Marshall Islands

While the term "downwinders" generally connotes nuclear fallout victims based in the continental U.S. near sites such as Hanford and NTS, the population of the Marshall Islands bore a large brunt of nuclear testing under the United States' Pacific Proving Ground program. Now known officially as the Republic of the Marshall Islands, it was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by the United States from 1944 to 1979, years during which the United States tested 66 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. [33]

One of these many tests, the March 1, 1954, explosion of Castle Bravo, a U.S. thermonuclear device, was responsible for most of the radiation the Marshall Islanders were exposed to. The fallout-related doses of this single test are believed[ who? ] to be the highest recorded in the history of worldwide nuclear testing. Many of the Marshall Islands which were part of the Pacific Proving Grounds remain contaminated by nuclear fallout, and many of those downwinders who were living on the islands at the time of testing have suffered from a highly increased incidence of several types of cancers and birth defects.[ citation needed ]

Effects of radiation on female downwinders

The primary long-term health hazard associated with exposure to ionizing radiation as a result of nuclear fallout is an increased risk for cancers of the thyroid, other solid tumor cancers, and leukemia. The relationship between radiation exposure and subsequent cancer risk is considered "the best understood, and certainly the most highly quantified, dose-response relationship for any common environmental human carcinogen", according to report by the National Cancer Institute. [9] Overall, men in the United States develop cancer at a rate 22% higher than that of women. However, women develop cancer from radiation at a rate from 37.5% to 52% higher than that of men. In recent years, studies conducted by both the National Research Council and the EPA have confirmed that compared to men, women are at a significantly higher risk of radiation-induced cancers, such and that women's sensitivity to radiation-induced cancers is much higher than was previously estimated. The increased radiosensitivity of certain organs in women, such as the breast, ovaries, and thyroid is likely the cause of this difference. [34]

In the EPA's 1999 Federal Guidance Report #13(FGR 13), Cancer Risk Coefficients for Environmental Exposure to Radionuclides, the authors conclude that women have a 48 percent higher radionuclide-related cancer mortality risk than men. Further evidence of sex-based disparities in radiation-induced cancers was published in the 2006 report by the National Research Council's Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation (known as the BEIR VII report), which found that women's risk due to radiation exposure exceeded men's by 37.5 percent. [6] When one considers rates of cancer incidence separately from rates of cancer fatality, the sex disparities are even greater. The BEIR VII Committee concluded that, given the same level of radiation exposure, women are 52 percent more likely than men to develop cancer, while the EPA report puts the estimate of difference as high as 58 percent. [34]

The differences in risk are even greater when considering organ-specific cancers, especially given that both reports identify breast, ovarian, lung, colon, and thyroid tissues as the most radiosensitive among women. For example, the FGR 13 has estimated that the ratio of thyroid cancer incidence for women as compared to men is 2.14, while the findings of BEIR VII suggest that women are even more vulnerable to radiation-induced thyroid cancer at a ratio of 4.76. [34]

As increasing concerns are raised regarding the environmental risks related to breast, the BEIR VII report cited evidence that suggests that "radiation may interact synergistically with other risk factors for breast cancer", raising the possibility that endocrine disrupting chemicals like PCBs and dioxins might combine to increase the risks associated with radiation beyond that which would be caused by either separately. [34] A related concern is that radionuclides that may be passed through the breast milk, causing some women who are downwinders to be reluctant to breastfeed their children. While reducing the radioactive intake of their infants is an important preventative measure, it denies women the opportunity to engage a preventative measure for their own health; i.e. breastfeeding has been widely documented as a practice that can reduce women's risk of developing breast cancer. By refraining from breastfeeding, women downwinders' risks of breast cancer incidence becomes even more elevated. [35]

Pregnancy and birth outcomes

Evidence about radiation-related pregnancy and birth outcomes comes from studies of nuclear bomb and test site survivors and studies of those exposed to diagnostic and therapeutic radiation. Mounting research indicates that above certain levels of radiation a miscarriage will result. It is also clear that fetal malformations are a greater risk if a woman is exposed to high doses of nuclear-related radiation in early pregnancy, when organs are being formed. [36]

If acute radiation exposure occurs in the first ten days following conception, when few cells have formed, it is likely that the embryo will fail to develop and spontaneous abortion will occur. Fetal malformations are most likely to occur if a pregnant woman receives a radiation dose >500 mSv between the 10th and 40th day of pregnancy, the period of organogenesis during which the organs are formed. After the 40th day, the effects of radiation exposure are likely to include low birth weight, delayed growth, and possible mental deficits rather than fetal malformations. Radiation doses above 4,000 mSv are likely to kill both the mother and the fetus. [37]

It has been shown that radiation damage including genome instability and carcinogenesis may occur transgenerationally in both males and females. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] The effects of radiation on fetal formation are also particularly relevant as a women's health issue to the extent that female fetuses' ova are formed while the fetus is still in utero. [43] Adverse effects on a mother carrying a female fetus may therefore be multigenerational and increase both the daughter's and grandchildren's risks for ovarian cancer, infertility, and other reproductive developmental problems. [34] [38] [44]

Compensation

In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), providing financial assistance to individuals who suffered from radiation exposure-related diseases, including lung cancer, leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphomas, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, as well as nonmalignant respiratory conditions such as lung fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis. This law specifically aimed to compensate former uranium miners who fell ill during the time when the U.S. Government was the sole purchaser of uranium. [45] Since its establishment in 1990, RECA has provided benefits exceeding $2.5 billion to over 39,000 claimants. [46]

Initially, RECA had narrow definitions regarding eligible people and covered diseases, but complaints arose regarding these limitations, leading to efforts to amend the act. In 1999, recognizing the need for change in the compensation process under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), four bills were submitted in the U.S. Congress aimed at amending the act. [45] Advocacy initiatives were directed towards extending coverage to include additional occupations, lower the standard of proof for uranium miners, eliminate distinctions between smokers and nonsmokers, and increase compensation for eligible individuals, which led to approved amendments to RECA in 2000, expanding coverage and modifying eligibility criteria to assist affected groups. [47]

Downwinders eligible for compensation include those living in specified counties of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona for at least two years between January 1951 and October 1958, or during July 1962-periods when the United States conducted above ground nuclear tests without warning, and who are able to show correlations between certain diseases and their personal exposure to nuclear radiation. [48] Miners' compensation covers workers employed in uranium mines in five states-Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Utah-between January 1947 and December 1971. Uranium miners are eligible for $100,000, and onsite participants are eligible for $75,000. [49]

There are particular obstacles to receiving needed health care and compensation faced by many widows and widowers of Navajo uranium miners, who were affected by disproportionately high incidences of fatal lung cancer caused by radon exposure. In fact, the health effects of radon were first widely acknowledged when Mormon and Native American miners who hardly smoke (the main reason for lung cancer) had high incidences of lung cancer. Modern mining practices greatly reduce the danger from radon - also present in many coal mines – by proper ventilation. One problem for Navajo widows and widowers seeking the federal benefits for which they are qualified is the requirement that they document their marriages, although many were married in the 1930s and 1940s in undocumented tribal ceremonies. Language and cultural barriers pose further obstacles to Navajo downwinders; since many elderly Navajos do not speak English, their children bear the responsibility to do the research and procure from a tribal law judge a validation certificate of their tribal marriage. Similarly, it is difficult to access the outdated medical and occupational documentation that the government required even though the government's and uranium companies' own records for Navajo miners are sparse and difficult to access. [50]

See also

Related Research Articles

Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear fallout</span> Residual radioactive material following a nuclear blast

Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes. The amount and spread of fallout is a product of the size of the weapon and the altitude at which it is detonated. Fallout may get entrained with the products of a pyrocumulus cloud and fall as black rain. This radioactive dust, usually consisting of fission products mixed with bystanding atoms that are neutron-activated by exposure, is a form of radioactive contamination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nevada Test Site</span> US Department of Energy reservation in Nevada

The Nevada National Security Sites, popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about 65 mi (105 km) northwest of the city of Las Vegas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear weapons testing</span> Controlled detonation of nuclear weapons for scientific or political purposes

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance, yield, and effects of nuclear weapons and have resulted until 2020 in up to 2.4 million people dying from its global fallout. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents</span> Severe disruptive events involving fissile or fusile materials

A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, or a reactor core melt. The prime example of a "major nuclear accident" is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radioactive isotopes are released, such as in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear fission product</span> Atoms or particles produced by nuclear fission

Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release of heat energy, and gamma rays. The two smaller nuclei are the fission products..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semipalatinsk Test Site</span> Nuclear test site for the Soviet Union in northeast Kazakhstan

The Semipalatinsk Test Site or Semipalatinsk-21, also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located in Zhanasemey District, Abai Region, Kazakhstan, south of the valley of the Irtysh River. The test site was part of the former Kazakh SSR. The scientific buildings for the test site were located around 150 km (93 mi) west of the town of Semipalatinsk, later renamed Semey, near the border of East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar Region. Most of the nuclear tests taking place at various sites further to the west and the south, some as far as into Karagandy Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potassium iodide</span> Ionic compound (KI)

Potassium iodide is a chemical compound, medication, and dietary supplement. It is a medication used for treating hyperthyroidism, in radiation emergencies, and for protecting the thyroid gland when certain types of radiopharmaceuticals are used. In the third world it is also used for treating skin sporotrichosis and phycomycosis. It is a supplement used by people with low dietary intake of iodine. It is administered orally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iodine-131</span> Isotope of iodine

Iodine-131 is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nuclear energy, medical diagnostic and treatment procedures, and natural gas production. It also plays a major role as a radioactive isotope present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health hazards from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being a large fraction of the contamination hazard in the first weeks in the Fukushima nuclear crisis. This is because 131I is a major fission product of uranium and plutonium, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission. See fission product yield for a comparison with other radioactive fission products. 131I is also a major fission product of uranium-233, produced from thorium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiation Exposure Compensation Act</span> US law

The United States Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) is a federal statute implemented in 1990, set to expire in July 2024, providing for the monetary compensation of people, including atomic veterans, who contracted cancer and a number of other specified diseases as a direct result of their exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing undertaken by the United States during the Cold War as residents, or their exposure to radon gas and other radioactive isotopes while undertaking uranium mining, milling or the transportation of ore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of the Chernobyl disaster</span> Assessment of Chernobyls impact on Earth since 1986

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. As of 2024, it was the world's largest known release of radioactivity into the environment.

Ernest Joachim Sternglass was a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Radiation and Public Health Project. He was an American physicist and author, best known for his controversial research on the health risks of low-level radiation from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and from nuclear power plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strontium-90</span> Radioactive isotope of strontium

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission, with a half-life of 28.8 years. It undergoes β decay into yttrium-90, with a decay energy of 0.546 MeV. Strontium-90 has applications in medicine and industry and is an isotope of concern in fallout from nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atomic veteran</span> A soldier exposed to radiation at a site of a nuclear explosion

An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military service: Participated in an above-ground nuclear test, 1945–1962; or was part of the U.S. military occupation forces in/around Hiroshima/Nagasaki before 1946; or was held as a POW in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki ."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Busby</span> British scientist

Christopher Busby is a British scientist primarily studying the health effects of internal ionising radiation. Busby is a director of Green Audit Limited, a private company, and scientific advisor to the Low Level Radiation Campaign (LLRC).

The effects of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident are widely agreed to be very low by scientists in the relevant fields. The American Nuclear Society concluded that average local radiation exposure was equivalent to a chest X-ray and maximum local exposure equivalent to less than a year's background radiation. The U.S. BEIR report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation states that "the collective dose equivalent resulting from the radioactivity released in the Three Mile Island accident was so low that the estimated number of excess cancer cases to be expected, if any were to occur, would be negligible and undetectable." A variety of epidemiology studies have concluded that the accident has had no observable long term health effects. One dissenting study is "a re-evaluation of cancer incidence near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant" by Dr Steven Wing of the University of North Carolina. In this study, Dr Wing and his colleagues argue that earlier findings had "logical and methodological problems" and conclude that "cancer incidence, specifically lung cancer and leukemia, increased following the TMI accident in areas estimated to have been in the pathway of radioactive plumes than in other areas." Other dissenting opinions can be found in the Radiation and Public Health Project, whose leader, Joseph Mangano, has questioned the safety of nuclear power since 1985.

<i>Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy</i> 1989 book by Philip L. Fradkin

Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy is a 1989 book by Philip L. Fradkin which was republished in a second edition in 2004. The book is about the radiation exposure of people and their livestock living downwind from the nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s. The case of Irene Allen et al. vs. the United States is used as a framework for the narrative. The court case "resulted in an award of $2.66 million in damages to eight persons with leukemia, one with thyroid cancer, and another with breast cancer".

Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the future incidence of cancer, particularly leukemia. The mechanism by which this occurs is well understood, but quantitative models predicting the level of risk remain controversial. The most widely accepted model posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases linearly with effective radiation dose at a rate of 5.5% per sievert; if correct, natural background radiation is the most hazardous source of radiation to general public health, followed by medical imaging as a close second. Additionally, the vast majority of non-invasive cancers are non-melanoma skin cancers caused by ultraviolet radiation. Non-ionizing radio frequency radiation from mobile phones, electric power transmission, and other similar sources have been investigated as a possible carcinogen by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, but to date, no evidence of this has been observed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear ethics</span> Academic and policy-relevant field on problems in the nuclear weapons and energy complex

Nuclear ethics is a cross-disciplinary field of academic and policy-relevant study in which the problems associated with nuclear warfare, nuclear deterrence, nuclear arms control, nuclear disarmament, or nuclear energy are examined through one or more ethical or moral theories or frameworks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear labor issues</span> Radiation workers health and labor issues

Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.

References

  1. Grossman, C M, W E Morton, and R H Nussbaum. "Hypothyroidism And Spontaneous Abortions Among Hanford, Washington, Downwinders." Archives Of Environmental Health 51.3 (1996): 175-176. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 7 May 2015.
  2. Morales, Laurel. "Nation Recognizes Nuclear Test Downwinders". Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  3. "Geothermal Energy Production Wastes". epa.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-05-14. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  4. Simon, Steven L. “Radiation Doses To Local Populations Near Nuclear Weapons Test Sites Worldwide,” Health Physics. 82(5):706-725, May 2002
  5. Cancers among Residents Downwind of the Hanford, Washington, Plutonium Production Site. By: Grossman, Charles M., Nussbaum, Rudi H., Nussbaum, Fred D., Archives of Environmental Health, 00039896, May2003, Vol. 58, Issue 5
  6. 1 2 Dr. Arjun Mahkijani, "Science for the Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental Health Standards to Protect Those Most at Risk," October 19, 2006: http://www.ieer.org/campaign/report.pdf Archived 2012-02-08 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Nuclear weapons testing#Nuclear testing by country
  8. "Gallery of U.S. Nuclear Tests". The Nuclear Weapon Archive. 2001. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Simon, Steven L.; Bouville, André; Land, Charles E. (2006), Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks, vol. 94, American Scientist, pp. 48–57
  10. 1 2 3 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 15 July 2019 ‘Trinity: ‘The Most Significant Hazard of the Entire Manhattan Project’”
  11. 1 2 Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940–1980, Harper & Row, New York, p. 208.
  12. "Lifetime Risk of Developing or Dying From Cancer". American Cancer Society. Archived from the original on 2016-11-25. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  13. "Was the Movie the Conqueror Really Cursed? A Look at Radiation Paranoia".
  14. A Short History Of Nuclear Folly, by Rudolph Herzog – Melville House (April 30, 2013)
  15. 1 2 3 U.S. Department of Energy / Nevada Operations Office, United States Nuclear Tests - July 1945 through September 1992, December 2000, DOE/NV-209 Rev 15 Archived October 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  16. "STATE DEPARTMENT TELEGRAM 012545 TO INTSUM COLLECTIVE, "INTSUM: INDIA: NUCLEAR TEST UNLIKELY"". Nuclear Proliferation International History Project. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  17. "Highlight 2007: The CTBT Verification Regime Put to the Test – The Event in the DPRK on 9 October 2006". Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization . 2012. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  18. "Press Release June 2009: Experts Sure About Nature of the DPRK Event". Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization . 2012. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  19. McKirdy, Euan (6 January 2016). "North Korea announces it conducted nuclear test". CNN. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  20. "North Korea claims successful hydrogen bomb test". CNBC. 3 September 2017. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  21. "S. RES. 330" (PDF). November 16, 2011.
  22. "U.S. lawmakers move urgently to recognize survivors of the first atomic bomb test". History. 2021-09-21. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  23. Begay, Mesha (2023-07-30). "Senate approves New Mexico Downwinders' inclusion in RECA amendment". KOB.com. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  24. Nelson, Craig (2014). The age of radiance : the epic rise and dramatic fall of the Atomic Era (First Scribner hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 336. ISBN   9781451660432 . Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  25. Wald, Matthew L. (August 2, 1997). "Thousands Have Thyroid Cancer From Atomic Tests". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  26. "Get the Facts about Exposure to I-131 Radiation". NIH National Cancer Institute. 2014-12-05. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  27. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Thyroid Screening (1999). "Review of the NCI Radiation Dose Reconstruction". Exposure of the American People to Iodine-131 from Nevada Nuclear-Bomb Tests: Review of the National Cancer Institute Report and Public Health Implications. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US). Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  28. Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses Received by the American People from Iodine-131 in Fallout Following Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests, a Report from the National Cancer Institute (two-volume report ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Cancer Institute (NCI) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1997. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  29. Gilbert, Ethel S.; Huang, Lan; Bouville, Andre; Berg, Christine D.; Ron, Elaine (May 2010). "Thyroid Cancer Rates and I Doses from Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests: An Update". Radiation Research. 173 (5): 659–664. Bibcode:2010RadR..173..659G. doi:10.1667/RR2057.1. PMC   3865880 . PMID   20426666.
  30. Overview of Hanford and Radiation Health Effects - Hanford Health Information Network - WA State Dept. of Health Archived January 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  31. McClure, Robert (May 21, 2005). "Downwinders' court win seen as 'great victory'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
  32. Boyle, Rebecca (2017). "Greetings from Isotopia". Distillations. 3 (3): 26–35. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  33. "Nuclear Weapons Test Map", Public Broadcasting Service
  34. 1 2 3 4 5 Arjun Makhijani, Brice Smith and Michael C. Thorne, "Healthy from the Start: Building a Better Basis for Environmental Health Standards— Starting with Radiation," Science for Democratic Action, vol. 44.4, February 2007: http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/14-4.pdf
  35. Isabel Woodman, “Breast feeding reduces risk of breast cancer, says study,” British Medical Journal, v.); Jul 27, 2002
  36. Shaw, Palma; Duncan, Audra; Vouyouka, Ageliki; Ozsvath, Kathleen (January 2011). "Radiation exposure and pregnancy". Journal of Vascular Surgery. 53 (1): 28S–34S. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2010.05.140 . PMID   20869193.
  37. "Health Physics and Radiation Protection FAQ About Radiation". Georgetown University Medical Center. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  38. 1 2 Schmitz-Feuerhake, Inge; Busby, Christopher; Pflugbeil, Sebastian (20 January 2016). "Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate". Environmental Health and Toxicology. 31: e2016001. doi:10.5620/eht.e2016001. PMC   4870760 . PMID   26791091.
  39. Koturbash, Igor; Baker, Mike; Loree, Jonathan; Kutanzi, Kristy; Hudson, Darryl; Pogribny, Igor; Sedelnikova, Olga; Bonner, William; Kovalchuk, Olga (October 2006). "Epigenetic dysregulation underlies radiation-induced transgenerational genome instability in vivo". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 66 (2): 327–330. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2006.06.012. PMID   16965987.
  40. Morgan, William F. (May 2003). "Non-targeted and Delayed Effects of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation: II. Radiation-Induced Genomic Instability and Bystander Effects Clastogenic Factors and Transgenerational Effects". Radiation Research. 159 (5): 581–596. doi:10.1667/0033-7587(2003)159[0581:NADEOE]2.0.CO;2. PMID   12710869. S2CID   22670243.
  41. Lomaeva, M. G.; Vasil’eva, G. V.; Fomenko, L. A.; Antipova, V. N.; Gaziev, A. I.; Bezlepkin, V. G. (8 October 2011). "Increased genomic instability in somatic cells of the progeny of female mice exposed to acute X-radiation in the preconceptional period". Russian Journal of Genetics. 47 (10): 1221–1226. doi:10.1134/S1022795411100115. PMID   22232925. S2CID   20289726.
  42. Camats, Núria; García, Francisca; Parrilla, Juan José; Calaf, Joaquim; Martín, Miguel; Caldés, Montserrat Garcia (April 2008). "Trans-generational radiation-induced chromosomal instability in the female enhances the action of chemical mutagens". Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis. 640 (1–2): 16–26. doi:10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2007.11.009. PMID   18206182.
  43. Krock, Lexi (2001). "Fertility Throughout Life". NOVA. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  44. Busby, Chris (17 March 2016). "It's not just cancer! Radiation, genomic instability and heritable genetic damage". Ecologist. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  45. 1 2 Brugge, Doug; Goble, Rob (February 2004). "The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act: What is Fair?". NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy. 13 (4): 385–397. Bibcode:2004NewSo..13..385B. doi:10.2190/N8NK-KB50-5UVV-MXG5. ISSN   1048-2911. PMID   17208740.
  46. Nayak, S.; Thota, S.; Joshi, D. C.; Krautz, M.; Waske, A.; Behler, A.; Eckert, J.; Sarkar, T.; Andersson, M. S.; Mathieu, R.; Narang, V.; Seehra, M. S. (2015-12-23). "Magnetic compensation, field-dependent magnetization reversal, and complex magnetic ordering in ${\mathrm{Co}}_{2}{\mathrm{TiO}}_{4}$". Physical Review B. 92 (21): 214434. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.92.214434.
  47. Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. 2005-09-01. doi:10.17226/11279. ISBN   978-0-309-09610-2.
  48. Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program (2005), 2 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11279&page=1
  49. "Miners, Downwinders Compensated." Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists 47.1 (1991): 5. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 7 May 2015.
  50. Schinder, Keith, "A Valley of Death for the Navajo Uranium Miners," New York Times, May 3, 1993.