References for Chernobyl April 26, 2021:
Cancer risk from low-dose ionizing radiation after Acute Myocardial Infarction: Mark J. Eisenberg, Jonathan Afilalo, Patrick R. Lawler, Michal Abrahamowicz, Hugues Richard, and Louise Pilote, “Cancer Risk Related to Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation from Cardiac Imaging in Patients after Acute Myocardial Infarction,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 183 (March 8, 2011): 430–436.
Exposure through radiation for Cancer therapy: “Benefits of Radiotherapy Outweigh Small Increased Risk of Second Cancer,” Ecancernews, 2011, ecancermedicalscience.com/news-insider-news.asp?itemid=1660.
Books:
*Adam Higgenbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl, The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster. Thorndike Press, 2020
Kate Brown, Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future W.W.Norton & Company, 2019
*Eileen Welsome, The Plutonium Files: American's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War. The Dial Press, Random House, Inc.c New York, 1999.
Fred C. Shapiro, Radwaste, Random House of Canada, Toronto, 1981.
Gayle Green, The Woman Who Knew Too Much University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1999.
*Leslie J Freeman, Nuclear Witnesses: Insiders Speak Out, Macleod Ltd, Toronto, 1981.
Rosalie Bertell, No Immediate Danger? Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth, Women's Educational Press, Toronto, Canada, 1985.
Chernobyl: Environmental health and Human Rights Implications, Vienna, Austria 12 - 15, April 1996, Permanent People's Tribunal, International medical Commission on Chernobyl (IMCC), Published by the International Peace Bureau, Date?
*Joseph Mangano, Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment, OR Books, New York and London, 2012
Dale Dewar & Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You: A primer on Radiation and Health, Between the Lines , Toronto, 2014
*Svetlana Alexievich, Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future, First published in 1997 in Russian, Translated by Anna Gunn and Arch Tait, Penguin Books, 2016. Winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Jay M. Gould, Benjamin A. Goldman, Deadly Deceit: Low-Level Radiation High-Level Cover-Up, Four Walls Eight Windows , New York, 1991.
Robert Gale and Eric Laax. Radiation: What It Is, What You Need to Know, Alfred A. Knopf, 2013
Websites:
http://nuclearhotseat.com/2021/04/20/chernobyl-anniversary-35-kate-brown-timothy-mousseau-ian-zabarte-on-usas-mighty-oak-nuke-accident-nh-513/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHkzypaJd6A
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Notes:
Matter is made of atoms and molecules. Molecules are groups of atoms held together by their electrical attractions. Some atoms can exist by themselves in nature - gold, copper, carbon but some atoms are sufficiently charged that they exist only in the form of a molecule with some other types of atoms or groups of atoms. These atoms readily become ions when they are not in molecules.
Our bodies make clever use of these charges. The movement of highly charged ions such as potassium, sodium, calcium and chloride is used for muscle contraction, construction projects like bones, tendons and cell walls, and cellular waste removal.
All of the actions and reactions are deceptively simple. The heme portion of the hemoglobin molecule is made up largely of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in a chain wrapped up in a knot with a small charged "seat" suitable only for an iron ion with the ability to attract oxygen in high oxygen situations like the lungs. When the molecule of heme reaches a place with low oxygen, the heme responds by physically changing shape and clasping the iron so tightly that it releases the oxygen to nourish the cell.
Atoms are the smallest part of a particular pure element. Molecules are groups of atoms that are stuck together because of their electrical attraction to one another. Elemental hydrogen is attracted to elemental oxygen in such a way that together they form water.
"Ionizing" radiation is distinct from non-ionizing radiation because it turns molecules into ions. A molecule of salt is a balanced pair of electrically charged ions, a sodium ion and a chloride ion. If they are separated, each of them will seek another ion, an oppositely charged ion to become neutral.
Sodium is positively charged so it will seek a negatively charged partner; the chloride is negative so it will seek another positively ion or, in this case, another chloride ion to form chlorine.
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To be clear here, we are talking about a particular type of radiation, ionizing radiation, radiation that breaks molecules into ions. When addressing nuclear power, four different kinds of ionizing radiation are produced - alpha and beta particles, neutrons and gamma rays. X-rays have the same basic properties as gamma rays but usually slightly less energy.
Why would the creation of ions be bad for biological health? Our bodies produce ions all the time and indeed we do. In fact, our bodies make clever use of ions, shifting them around to contract muscles, absorb food from the gut, produce hormones and generally keep going. Unintended ions cause cell walls to fall apart, enzymes to malfunction, and genetic material to fail.
When a gamma ray passes through a body, it leaves a trail of ions. Usually our bodies repair the damage or send in demolition crews of white blood cells to remove the cell. Sometimes the damage cannot be repaired but the cell lives on in a state of disrepair. Some of these damaged cells can eventually reproduce and we become ill or develop a cancer - or worse, have genetically destroyed offspring.
Alpha particles cannot penetrate skin but when absorbed from food, air or water, are extremely damaging inside the body. Beta particles can affect the skin to a couple of centimetres but their damage is also greater ingested. Gamma rays go right through us.
What do we know about the damage and when did we know it?
I have been criticized by members of the nuclear industry for using x-ray damage in speaking about radiation but they are extremely similar, accurate doses are known and if there is any criticism, it would be because the effects of gamma would be greater than those of x-rays. I am add that the nuclear industry has never been completely honest about amount of ionizing radiation released in a nuclear accident or even under normal operation of a nuclear power plant.
X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen working with cathode ray tubes. His wife's hand was the first x-ray. The imaging was revolutionary for the medical profession - no precautions were used by either the doctors radiographers or the patients because no one knew of the danger. On the other hand, within a year, experimenters were reporting hair loss, burns and worse - radiographers were using their hands to focus x-rays. The first reported death was Thomas Edison's assistant in 1903, whose badly deformed hands developed cancer and were amputated in a futile attempt to save his life. On August 3, 1905 in San Francisco, California, Elizabeth Fleischman, American X-ray pioneer, died from complications as a result of her work with X-rays.
Even then there were doctors who denied any adverse effects existed from x-rays.
At the time, it was thought that no damage was inflicted if the skin did not turn red. Over the course of a couple of decades more concerns about longer term effects surfaced until a first meetings of radiologists occurred in 1925 and in 1928.
It was thought that if the "dose" was kept below that which caused the skin to redden = no damage done. Similarities between x-rays and the rays emitted by radium were similar.
The case of the radium girls, the watch face painters who routinely sharpened their brushes by putting them between their lips, plus that of a famous golf pro and wealthy industrialist, established the link between radium and bone cancer.
In 1927, Hermann Muller
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