Coop Radio: Is nuclear energy dead? "Panel Affirms Radiation Link to
Cancer
When: Monday July 4, 2005 at Noon – 1 PM Pacific Time Where: Coop Radio: CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver, B.C. LISTEN LIVE: http://www.coopradio.org Host: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd GUESTS: Leuren Moret, Expert Witness at the International Criminal Tribunal
For Afghanistan
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2005/06/leuren_moret_wa.html Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass, Physicist
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/inetSeries/nwEJS.html ARTICLE: Panel Affirms Radiation Link to Cancer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050629/ap_on_he_me/radiation_risks By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press WriterWed Jun 29, 7:57 PM ET
Even very low doses of radiation pose a risk of cancer over a person's
lifetime, a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded Wednesday. It rejected
some scientists' arguments that tiny doses are harmless or may in fact be
beneficial.
The findings could influence the maximum radiation levels that are allowed
at abandoned reactors and other nuclear sites. The conclusions also raise
warnings about excessive exposure to radiation for medical purposes such as
repeated whole-body CT scans.
"It is unlikely that there is a threshold (of radiation exposure) below
which cancers are not induced," scientists said in the report.
While at low doses "the number of radiation-induced cancers will be small
... as the overall lifetime exposure increases, so does the risk," the experts
said.
Scientists for years have debated how extremely low doses of radiation
affect human health.
Pro-nuclear advocates, as well as some independent scientists, have
maintained that the current risk models for low-level radiation has produced
more stringent requirements than is necessary to protect public health.
It is an issue in determining decontamination requirements at abandoned
reactors and at federal weapons sites.
The academy's panel stood by the "linear, no threshold" model that
generally is the acceptable approach to radiation risk assessment. This approach
assumes that the health risks from radiation exposure decline as the dose levels
drop, but that each unit of radiation — no matter how small — is assumed to
cause cancer.
"The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure
below which low levels of ionized radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless
or beneficial," said Richard R. Monson, the panel's chairman. He is a professor
of epidemiology at Harvard's School of Public Health.
The panel said new and more extensive data developed over the past 15 years
only strengthen the conclusions of the panel's last report, in 1990, on
low-level radiation risks.
The scientists estimated that one out of 100 people exposed to 100
millisievert of radiation over a lifetime probably would develop solid cancer or
leukemia, and that half of those cases would be fatal.
It also said that 42 additional cancers can be expected in the same group
from other than low-level radiation sources.
A millisievert is a measurement of radiation energy deposited in a living
tissue. People absorb about 3 millisievent of radiation annually from natural
sources and 0.1 millisivert every time they get a chest X-ray.
The report noted that exposure from a whole body CT scan is about 10
millisievert, much higher than a normal X-ray. That raised concerns about the
frequency of such medical diagnostics.
The report should not scare people away from nuclear medicine, said Dr.
Henry Royal, a professor of radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. He
said most often the benefits of such tests and treatments outweigh the
risks.
But Royal also said that procedures such as CT scans should be used to deal
with a specific medical problems and not part of annual medical screenings. "You
should not be exposed to radiation for superficial reasons," Royal said in a
telephone interview.
Some anti-nuclear advocates said the study reaffirms that stringent
regulations are needed when cleaning up abandoned nuclear sites or considering
health risks near nuclear power plants.
"The NAS panel puts to rest once and for all claims that low doses of
radiation aren't dangerous ... nuclear advocates have been making this claim for
years" said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a Los
Angeles-based nuclear watchdog group.
Mitchell Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the
industry's lobbying arm, said the report "is a positive finding. It shows there
is very little risk of exposure from low levels of radiation."
The academy is a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the
government of scientific matters.
___ On the Net:
National Academy of Science: www.nationalacademies.org
GUEST: Leuren Moret was an Expert Witness at the International Criminal
Tribunal For Afghanistan At Tokyo. She is an independent scientist and
international expert on radiation and public health issues. She is on the
organizing committee of the World Committee on Radiation Risk, an organization
of independent radiation specialists, including members of the Radiation
Committee in the EU parliament, the European Committee on Radiation Risk.
She is an environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley. Ms. Moret earned
her BS in geology at U.C. Davis in 1968 and her MA in Near Eastern studies from
U.C. Berkeley in 1978. She has completed all but her dissertation for a
PhD in the geosciences at U.C. Davis. She has traveled and conducted
scientific research in 42 countries. She wrote a scientific report on
depleted uranium for the United Nations sub commission investigating the
illegality of depleted uranium munitions. Marian Falk, a former Manhattan
Project scientist and retired insider at the Livermore Lab, who is an expert on
radioactive fallout and rainout, has trained her on radiation issues.
Leuren Moret has conducted research concerning the impact on the health of
the environment and global public health from atmospheric testing, nuclear power
plants, and depleted uranium. She has helped collect and measure radiation
in 6000 baby teeth from children living around nuclear power
plants, and helped The State of Louisiana (USA) pass the first state depleted uranium bill for mandatory testing of soldiers. Articles she wrote on DU were translated into 14 Indian languages and put
depleted uranium on the Indian 2004 election platform for all parties. Her
article "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" in the June 2004
WORLD AFFAIRS JOURNAL changed Indian foreign policy, and was translated at the
request of the Kremlin for distribution throughout the Russian government.
The LONE STAR ICONOCLAST, hometown newspaper of President Bush, interviewed her
for a series of interviews, "What is depleted uranium?", which are now attached
to US Congressman McDermott's 2005 depleted uranium bill HR 2410 in the US
Congress. Her City of Berkeley 2003 resolution
banning weapons in space was followed by a Space Preservation Treaty Resolution adopted by seven sister cities in British Columbia, Canada, contributing to Prime Minister Paul Martin decision in February 2005 to abandon his secret agreement with President Bush to allow NMD in Canada. Her research on divestment of pension funds from US weapons manufacturers
was discussed on a Vancouver radio station in April 2005. The interview
helped to make divestment, of $4.6 billion (in 251 US weapons manufacturers) in
British Columbia (BC) pension funds, an issue for the May 2005 election platform
in BC.
Leuren Moret is a Livermore nuclear weapons lab whistleblower, an
Environmental Commissioner in the City of Berkeley, and testifies as a depleted
uranium expert in the new documentary film BEYOND TREASON.
Leuren Moret Testimony: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-ICT13dec03.htm
DEPLETED URANIUM – Research Resources Recommended by Leuren Moret
Best Photos:
LIFE photoessay: The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html Iraq: babies, children, adults exposed to depleted
uranium, and Sandstorm April 26, 2005: http://www.zlocinac.org/du_effects Best book:
Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html Best DU Conference:
World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference Hamburg, October 2003 http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de Best articles:
LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Crawford Texas "What is depleted uranium?" http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/xArchives/2005/19_Issue/Default.htm SAN FRANCISCO BAY VIEW
"Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets: A death sentence here and abroad" http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml AL-JAZEERA NEWS
"Washington's secret nuclear war" http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B2E2DF9B-1E0C-43F4-BBF6-74C1367E27C.htm WORLD AFFAIRS - The Journal of International Issues
"Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm GUEST: Ernest J. Sternglass, Physicist
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/inetSeries/nwEJS.html "Back in 1947 they knew. The data had been gathered at Argonne National
Laboratory.[1] They knew that the newborn puppies, whose mothers had been fed
small amounts of radioactive strontium-90, were dying of underdevelopment and
serious birth defects. The government knew, and decided to keep it secret. The
government set up the study. The government knew the results. And the government
kept those results from the American people. Why?"
We are at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in the office of the
director of the Department of Radiological Physics, Dr. Ernest Sternglass. He is
sitting in a swivel chair in his tiny, cramped office. He is a man in his late
fifties, balding, with glasses. He came to the United States from Nazi Germany
when he was fourteen, in 1938. He leans forward, gesturing with his hands. "I
know how a government can be totally destructive of its own people, how people
in the highest level of government can use lies to achieve their political
purposes."
Dr. Sternglass has been working for almost twenty years to publicize the
dangers of low-level radiation. His article on the increased incidence of
leukemia from fallout was published in Science in the spring of 1963. The Atomic
Energy Commission "pooh-poohed the whole thing." They said his statistics
"weren't good enough." His findings threatened the nuclear establishment. The
government and the nuclear industry tried to discredit his evidence by making
Dr. Sternglass out to be a "kook." It took courage to continue to speak
out.
"I was giving a paper at a health physics meeting here in Pittsburgh. I
figured, at least here there would be some newspaper reporters. Someone told me,
go, talk to one of the reporters in the newsroom. So I did. I gave him a rundown
of the significance of my findings. He took notes and said he'd do a story. That
story never got out on the wires. Some time later I told someone at the AP
office in Pittsburgh about my findings. `Dr. Sternglass, how come you didn't
give us this story before?' I said, `I did give it to you. There was a
stringer.' And I gave him his name. He said, `I'll look it up.' And he called me
up and said, `There is no such individual working for Associated Press.' Who had
I spoken to? I never found out."
After World War II the U.S. military was intent upon building up its
weapons arsenal. But Americans were sick of war. The military figured that the
way to get their weapons program funded was to make the bomb look "peaceful and
happy," to take away the spectre of war and transform atomic energy into a
"promise for peace." The "peaceful atom" was a cover for the continued
proliferation of weapons development. It was an elaborate lie. Dr. Sternglass
gradually realized how far-reaching the lie had been. "The military was behind
everything."
_________________________
[1] The study referred to here was performed under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1945 and 1946. Reports were printed by the AEC in 1947 (USAEC Report CH-3843, Argonne National Laboratory, 1947) and 1948 (USAEC Report ANL-4227, pp. 71-82, Argonne National Laboratory, 1948) but the complete results were not made public until 1969. See Miriam P. Finkel and Birute O Biskis, "Pathologic Consequences of Radiostrontium Administered to Fetal and Infant Dogs" in Radiation Biology of the Fetal and Juvenile Mammal, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Hanford Biology Symposium at Richland, Washington, 5-8 May 1969, ed. Melvin R. Sikov and D. Dennis Mahlum, CONF-69050 (Springfield, Virginia: Clearing House for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, 1969), pp. 543-564. ______ Growing Up: Germany, X-rays, and War
Ernest Sternglass was born in 1923 in Berlin, Germany. Both his parents
were physicians. His mother, a pediatrician and obstetrician, had an office in
their home. His father's dermatology office was in another part of Berlin, and
for some reason he had a number of fetuses in bottles high on a shelf, fetuses
at every stage of development. He also had X-ray equipment and ultraviolet
machines which he used in treating skin cancers and other conditions.
Sternglass's parents frequently discussed their cases at the dinner table. "I
remember them talking about patients who had been given excessive amounts of
radiation for acne or ringworm of the scalp, patients who then came to my father
for treatment."[2]
When Hitler came to power, the Sternglass family knew they would have to
leave Germany eventually. Sternglass was ten years old, old enough to understand
the growing danger. "We had a little house in the country, and there were days,
sometimes nights when people came to throw rocks, trying to break our windows. I
lived in fear of my father being arrested at any time." The Sternglass family
finally left Germany in 1938, when Ernest was fourteen, and by the time they
came to the United States, Sternglass was "very appreciative of what this
country meant."
The family was in difficult financial straits when they arrived in New York
City. While Sternglass's father learned English and struggled to pass his
Licensing Board Examinations, his mother supported the family by giving health
massages and working as a doctor in summer camps. Sternglass did household
chores to help out.
When Sternglass completed high school at the age of sixteen, war had broken
out in Europe, and while he did not know what would happen, he decided he would
go to college. Although his heart was in physics, in basic research, his mother
persuaded him in another direction.
"You aren't going to have a job to support yourself and your family if you
are only a physicist," she warned her son. "You need something like
engineering--something practical to keep you going. Later on, if you want, you
can always turn to physics."
So when Sternglass entered Cornell, he registered for an engineering
program. His family was still deep in financial trouble, and he had to leave
school for a year to help support the family. When he returned to Cornell, the
United States had already entered the war, and Sternglass learned that people
were wanted in radar and electronics. Since he had had some engineering training
and had studied electronics, he volunteered for the navy.
"I was about to be shipped out with the invasion fleet to Japan, when the
atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima. When the announcement came about this
bomb that had suddenly ended the whole war, I was very relieved. I didn't have
to be shipped out. Only later did I understand what had happened, what the bomb
meant."
After the war, Sternglass married and moved to Washington, D.C., where he
worked as a civilian employee at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory, which
researched military weapons such as mines, torpedoes, and guiding systems for
underwater missiles. Sternglass began investigating imaging devices that would
enable a soldier to see the enemy at night. He found the work fascinating. "I
wanted to understand the interaction of electrons with matter, the penetration
of electrons into solids, and the scattering of radiation by solids."
Sternglass's work involved radiation, an interest dating back to his childhood.
He began to explore a theory of electron emission from solids, related to the
photoelectric effect, for which Einstein had won the Nobel Prize.
The year 1947 was a turning point for Sternglass. Not only did his wife
give birth to their first son, but Sternglass had the opportunity to meet
Einstein in person.
_________________________
[2] In the 1920s and 1930s it was common practice to treat skin disorders, such as acne and ringworm of the scalp, with X-ray treatments. ______ “WAKE-UP WITH CO-OP” MON.-WED.- FRI. 7-9 AM PT
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