1.3 BILLION People Killed, Maimed, Sickened
By Atmpospheric Testing & Nuke Plants
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start counter September 1  2002

The following is from the November 1999 "The Ecologist" Volume 29, No. 7 from pages 408 to 411.

Copies can be obtained in the USA at: Phone:510-548-2032, Fax:510-548-4916

Main Office in UK:  Phone:0171-351-3578, Fax:0171-351-3617 E-mail: ecologist@gn.apc.org

http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/victims.html

"VICTIMS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE"  Up to 1,300 million people have been killed, maimed or diseased by nuclear
power since it's  inception. The industry's figures massively underestimate the real cost of nuclear power, in an
attempt to hide its victims from the world. Here, the author calculates the real number of victims of the nuclear age.

By Dr. Rosalie Bertell

 On the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, I was standing at a public meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, listening to the
 story of one of the firemen employed to clean up the site after the explosion. These workers took huge doses of radiation
 during this task, and their story is a terrifying one.About 600,000 men were conscripted as Chernobyl 'liquidators' [also
 called bio-robots']: farmers, factory workers,miners, and soldiers- as well as professionals like the firemen- from all
 across Russia. Some of these men lifted pieces of radioactive metal with their bare hands. They had to fight more than 300
 fires created by the chunks of burning material spewed off by the inferno. They buried trucks, fire engines, cars and all
 sorts of personal belongings. They felled a forest and completely buried it, removed topsoil, bulldozed houses and filled
 all available clay-lined trenches with radioactive debris. The minimum conscription time was 180 days, but many stayed for a
 year. Some were threatened with severe punishment to their families if they failed to stay and do their duty.

 These 'liquidators' are now discarded and forgotten, many vainly trying to establish that the ill health most have
 suffered ever since 1986 is a result of their massive exposure to radiation. At the Centre for Radiation Research outside
 Kiev, there is an organization of former liquidators. This group reports that by 1995, 13,000 of their members had died-
 almost 20 percent of which deaths were suicides. About 70,000 members were estimated to be permanently disabled. But the
 members of this organization are the lucky ones. Because many former liquidators are now scattered throughout Russia, they
 neither have the benefit of the organization's special hospital, nor of membership of a survivor organization. They are
 known as the 'living dead.'

 The fireman whose story I was listening to seemed to be an exception to this grim litany of illness and death. He was telling
the meeting how pleased and excited he was that, for the first time in ten years, his blood test findings were in  the normal
range. I was standing next to a delegate from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]- the organisation
charged with promoting the use of atomic energy. On hearing the fireman's story, he leaned over to me and said:
"You see! We  said these were only transient disorders." A rough translation might read: Chernobyl? What's the problem?

IGNORING THE VICTIMS

The IAEA man's attitude was perfectly in keeping with that of his organization which, along with the International
Commission on Radiation Protection [ICRP] exists in practice largely to play down the effects of radiation on human health,
and to shield the nuclear industry from compensation claims from the public. The IAEA was set up in the late 1950s by he UN,
to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote the peaceful use of atomic energy- ironically, two contradictory
objectives. The ICRP which evlved from the 1928 International Committee on X-Ray and Radium Protection, was set  up in
the fifties to explore the health effects of radiation and [theoretically] to protect the public from it. In fact, both
organizations have come to serve the industry rather than the public.

 The Chernobyl case is a classic example of the IAEA's inadequacy and questionable science. Despite massive evidence to
 the contrary, not least from the many thousands of victims themselves, the IAEA insists that only 32 people have so far died
 as a result of Chernobyl- those who died in the radiation ward of Hospital six in Moscow.All other deaths related to the
 disaster and its aftermath [and there have been many more than 10,000 in Ukraine alone according to the Minister of Health
 there] are ignored. Belarus had the highest fallout, and yet there is an international blackout among the IAEA and the rest
 of the "radiation protection community" on the suffering of its people

 The essential problem is that both the IAEA and the ICRP are dealing not with science but with politics and
 administration;  not with public health but with maintaining an increasingly dubious industry. It is their interests, and
 those of the nuclear industry, to play down the health effects of radiation.

 RESTRICTIVE DEFINITIONS

 The main way in which the "radiation protection industry"  has succeeded in hugely underrating the ill-health caused by
 nuclear power is by insisting on a group of extremely restrictive definitions as to what qualifies as a radiation-caused
 illness statistic. For example, under IAEA's criteria:
 

   If a radiation-caused cancer is not fatal, it is not counted in the IAEA's figures

   If a cancer is initiated by another carcenogen, but accelerated or promoted by exposure to radiation, it is not counted.

   If an auto-immune disease or any non-cancer is caused by radiation, it is not counted.

   Radiation-damaged embryos or foetuses which result in miscarriage or stillbirth do not count


 A congenitally blind, deaf or malformed child whose illnesses are are radiation-related are not included in the figures
 because this is not genetic damage, but rather is teratogenic, and will not be passed on later to the child's offspring.

 Causing the genetic predisposition to breast cancer or heart disease does not count since it is not a "serious genetic
 disease" in the Mendelian sense.

 Even if radiation causes a fatal cancer or serious genetic disease in a live born infant, it is discounted if the estimated
 radiation dose is below 100 mSv [mSv= millisievert,a measurement of radiation exposure. One hundred millsievert is the
 equivalent in radiation of about 100 X-Rays].

 Even if radiation causes a lung cancer, it does not count if the person smokes- in fact whenever there is a possibility of
 another cause, radiation cannot be blamed.

  If all else fails, it is possible to claim that radiation below some designated dose does not cause cancer, and then
 average over the whole body the radiation dose which has actually been received by one part of the body or even organ, as
 for instance when radio-iodine concentrates in the thyroid. This arbitrary dilution of the dose will ensure that the 100 mSv
 cut-off point is nowhere near reached. It is a technique used to dismiss the sickness of Gulf War veterans who inhaled small
 particles of ceramic uranium which stayed in their lungs for more than two years, and in their bodies for more than eight
 years, irradiating and damaging cells in  a particular part of the body.

  THE REAL VICTIMS

 Despite the authorities' attempt at concealment, we can still begin to enumerate the real victims of the nuclear age.
Although the calculations and statistics which I have brought to bear below do not include all of the human suffering that
has been caused by the nuclear age, a closer look will show that the methodology is adequate for a first estimate of major
damage. The magnitude of the harm already caused is startling, and even more so when we realise many types of damage
have  been omitted from this first estimate.

 In my estimate cancer, whether fatal or non-fatal [excluding non-fatal skin cancer], genetic damage and serious
 congenital malformations and diseases will be included in the figures. Other damage is acknowledged but not estimated.
 Ultimately, whether or not one cares about the damage caused by radiation exposure  is ultimately a human, not a
 scientific question. Damage is damage, and causing an unwanted attack on someone's person or reproductive capacity is a
 violation of human rights. Such damage can be rated for importance, but it should not be arbitrarily ignored.

 "Statistics are the people with the tears wiped away" stated one of the Rongelap people of the Republic of the Marshall
 Islands, who 'hosted' the United States Bikini nuclear testing in the 1950s. This is the story of many tears, and of a hard
 hearted mindset that laid down the degree of suffering  and ill-health that would be the 'acceptable' price to pay for the
 world 'benefitting' from nuclear technology.

 RISK ESTIMATES USED IN THIS ANALYSIS

In order to estimate the real victims of the nuclear industry [as oppossed to those figures enumerated by the ICRP,
IAEA and other nuclear apologists] I will take the customary risk estimates, indicate their probable range of error, and then
extend the definition to cover related events not recognized as 'detriments' by the regulators. For example, while the nuclear
regulators only take fatal cancers into consideration as 'detriments' by the regulators, others, especially those who endure
a non-fatal cancer, may find their suffering equally worthy of consideration. And limiting genetic effects to live born
offspring does not wipe away the tears of a family that has endured a spontaneous miscarriage or stillbirth.

 ESTIMATING THE FATAL AND NON-FATAL CANCER RISKS

 In 1991, the ICRP concluded that the projected lifetime risk of fatal cancer for members of the population exposed Sievert
 whole-body radiation at a low dose rate, was between seven and 11 excess fatal cancers, and seven to eight excess fatalities
 for in the nuclear industry aged 25 to 64 years. We  extend these estimates to non-fatal cancers by estimating the total
 number of cancers which were used by the ICRP in order to obtain the number of fatalities. We therefore estimate 16 fatal
 and non-fatal cancers if we exclude non-fatal skin cancers] or 36 if we count them.If the estimate of fatal cancers was off
 by a factor of two then we can double all those numbers.

 The estimate I use for cancer 16 per 100 Person Sieverts, but the reader can adjust this estimate to suit other
 inclusions, exclusions or uncertainties.

ESTIMATING DAMAGE TO AN EMBRYO OR FOETUS

According to the BEIR Committee [Bilogical Effects of Ionizing Radiation] 1990 report, a dose of 150 mSv to human male
testes will cause temporary sterility, and a single dose of 3.5 Sv will cause permanent sterility. According to the ICRP in
1991, just 5 mSv to the testes will cause damage to offspring - YET THIS DOSE WAS PERMITTED YEARLY TO MEMBERS
OF THE PUBLIC, AND TEN TIMES MORE TO NUCLEAR WORKERS, IN ALL COUNTRIES PRIOR TO 1990. It continues
today to be permitted yearly for nuclear workers in most countries.

Women carry with them all of the ova from birth which they will ever have. The threshold for permanent female
sterilisation decreases with age, but in general about 650 mSv is considered to be the threshold for temporary sterility in
women. After the Bravo event- the detonation of a hydrogen bomb at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific  in March 1954- the
women of Rongelap Atoll experienced about five years of sterility. As they regained their sterility, they experienced faulty
pregnancies, miscarrigies, stillbirths and damage to their offspring. Since some radionucleides can be retained in bone or
fatty tissues, they are able to cross the placenta barrier and disrupt the developing embryo or foetus. Radionucleides in
the mother's body can also be transferred  in her breast milk.

 The official nuclear industry definition of 'detriment' includes only serious genetic disease not judged to be serious,
 and teratogenic diseases [those which are not passed on to offspring] are not counted.  Recently the 1990 BEIR committee
 made one small concession in recognizing mental retardation in children exposed to radiation during the fifth to 15th weeks
 of their mother's pregnancy. Radiation kills brain cells, causing both an underdeveloped brain [microcephaly] and mental
 retardation. For the individual child, BEIR estimates that a dose in utero of 100 to 500 mSv can cause a range of problems
 from poor school performance to severe mental retardation.

GENETIC DAMAGE

The U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation [UNSCEAR] and BEIR both agree that a population of one
million live births exposed to 100 Person Sieverts will result in one to three genetic damage effects to offspring, and so  to
the human gene pool. The doubling dose for genetic effects [the dose that will cause twice as many genetic effects] is
more contentious, with some geneticists claiming that it is 2.5 Sv, and others claiming much greater sensitivity with a 0.12
Sv doubling dose. If the latter is true, then the increase in genetic effects will be 8.3 per cent for every 10mSv and
therefore 83 such effects per million live births when the total averaged dose is 100 Person Sieverts rather than the 4
such effects in the first instance. On the conservative side, we have taken 10 genetic effects to be the number for exposed
offspring.

ESTIMATE OF TERATOGENIC EFFECTS'

 The damage to an embryo from ionizing radiation when in the womb is not considered to be genetic. Such irradiation can
 lead to some 30 different congenital anomolies including permanent damage to the brain, mental deficiency, skull
 deformities, cleft palate, spina bifida, club-feet, genital deformities, growth retardation and childhood cancer. A total of
 all those effects, including mortality, amount to 46, of which 25 are live born.

 When we summarise those risk estimates, we get 16 cancers, 10 genetic effects and 25 congenital effects for one million
 exposed to 100 Person Sieverts.The task now is to apply those numbers for the global population from industrial nuclear
 activities, including weapons testing in the fifties, sixties and early seventies and electricity production from nuclear
 power over the past half century. When we do this we find that weapons testing has lead to nearly 376 million cancers, 235
 million genetic effects and 587 million teratogenic effects to give A TOTAL OF APPROXIMATELY 1,200 MILLION.
Meanwhile, electricity production from nuclear plants between 1943 and 2000 may have lead to another million victims,of
which as many one-fifth will have been premature cancer deaths. Although not officially accounted for, about 500 million
foetuses would have also been lost as stillbirths during that period from radiation exposure while in the womb.

 Another century of nuclear power, and this carnage would continue with more than 10 million victims a year. An industry
 which has the potential to kill, injure and maim that number of innocent people- and all in the name of 'benefitting'
 society - is surely wholly unacceptable.

Rosalie Bertell, PhD, GNSH, is President of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health and Editor in Chief of
International Perspectives in Public Health and Editor in Chief of International Perspectives in Public Health [IICPH]. Dr.
Bertell can be reached via e-mail at: drrbertell@home.com

International war crimes arrest warrants ought also to be issued  for the perpetrators of these crimes. People in the
United States like Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, Michael Jordan CEO of Westinghouse and the usual litany
of military types, mostly Soviet & American. Does anyone [Frances Boyle?]know anything about initiating legal
proceedings against these people?



Notes/corrections to clarify above article as it was published in the
"Ecologist" from the Author, Dr. Rosalie Bertell:

RE:     November Issue

Important references were omitted, as was the fact that I used only UNSCEAR data on population doses of radiation due to weapons or civilian nuclear enterprises.  The text does not mention the source of the population dose estimates, which are fundamental to the credibility.  I can also be faulted for the comment (added by someone) that 100 mSv is the equivalent in radiation to about  100 medical Xrays.  Nuclear doses are always whole body doses, while medical Xray delivers a partial body dose to the target organ (teeth, chest, kidney, etc.).  Speaking about "100 medical Xrays" is pretty vague and useless.

I tried to present the results in table form so that you could aggregate them as you needed, but I cannot match the numbers used in the article with my original estimates.  The editor exaggerated somewhat the weapon testing contribution and very much slighted the nuclear power contribution.  Both calculations were made using the same methodology and both used the official UNSCEAR data.

However, the text says: "we find that weapon testing has led to .......approximately 1,200 million.  Meanwhile, electricity production from
nuclear plants between 1943 and 2000 may have led to another million victims ....."

My estimates are:

Nuclear weapon testing: 1, 138 million
Nuclear weapon production: 3.2 million (84% local or regional)

Nuclear power production:  21  million  (76% local or regional)
Medical production and use: 4  million

Accidents:
Military - 16  million
Civilian - 15  million

Total Military: 1,156  million
Total civilian electricity related:  36 million
Total medical:  4  million

GRAND TOTAL:  1, 200 million

Of these amounts, about 31.4% are radiation induced cancers; 19.6% are genetic effects and 49% are teratogenetic effects in live born offspring.

I used official risk factors except for not introducing the dose rate effect which the nuclear people do to reduce the number of cancers.  My own
research would say that the cancer estimates should be doubled, not divided by two.  In the paper I maintained a neutral position be not doing either.

Best wishes,
Rosalie Bertell
drrbertell@home.com


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Unburned DU penetrators in Iraq after 1991 'war'
http://www.llrc.org/du/duframes.htm
               There were several places where the 14.7mm penetrator cores of the 30mm A-10 shells were
               just lying on the road. These were very radioactive, and gave 12000cps or more beta radiation
               equivalent to tissue doses of 0.48mSv/hour. The uncorrected alpha signal was 12cps. Thus anyone
               handling them for any length of time would receive a serious burn. No doubt pieces of these and
               whole penetrators litter the area around the towns where they were used. In one building in an oil
               pumping station where no tanks were, there were several such rounds lying about. One had
               grazed the plaster inside a doorway of a building and embedded itself in the floor. There were high
               levels of radioactivity along the greyish graze mark. 

 
 
 

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