[ RadSafe ] Letter from Nature: Most radiation-related deaths happened in 1945

[John Jacobus]

Nature 437, 620 (29 September 2005)

Most radiation-related deaths happened in 1945
Burton Bennett1

Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama
Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, 732-0815 Japan


Sir:
The figures given in your News story "Shadow hangs
over research into Japan's bomb victims" (Nature 436,
610−611; 2005) are not backed by research
carried out at the Radiation Effects Research
Foundation (RERF) in Japan.

The atomic bombings killed an estimated 120,000 people
in Hiroshima and another 70,000 in Nagasaki by late
1945, including those who died of radiation sickness
in the weeks after the bombs were dropped. The number
of subsequent deaths from radiation is much smaller.

Studies carried out at RERF indicate that 94 leukaemia
deaths have been attributed to radiation exposure
since RERF's recording began in 1950, and 477
radiation-related deaths from solid cancers (D. L.
Preston et al. Radiat. Res. 162, 377−389; 2004).
Some further radiation-associated deaths may still
occur. The RERF cohort (120,000 initially, of whom 43%
are still alive) comprises about half of all
survivors, but includes almost all who received the
highest exposures.

The risk of death from radiation-related disease other
than cancer is much lower. Because of higher
background non-cancer mortality, the number of
non-cancer deaths attributed to radiation is estimated
to be about 40% of the number of radiation-related
cancer deaths. This brings to about 800 the total
number of deaths since 1950 that we can relate to
radiation from the atomic bombs, with perhaps an equal
number of radiation-caused deaths yet to occur.

With regard to other points in your story, I would
like to mention that RERF's buildings are sturdy and
well maintained and that I have confidence in the
pledges made by the Japanese and US governments to
continue funding this most important study of
radiation effects and risks. A further five-year
funding agreement will be signed in November.



+++++++++++++++++++
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tired anything new."
-- Albert Einstein

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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