[ RadSafe ] Smithsonian - Low levels of radioactive cesium produced insect deformities at Fukushima

Tue May 20 13:11:13 CDT 2014

I think Brad just identified the core issues. Sad, because I've had to deal
with this type in court and regulatory hearings. n=5; No controls. Wow!  I
wonder who did the peer review on this paper, or was there any peer review?

Best!

Dan ii

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On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 11:28 AM, Brad Keck <bradkeck at mac.com> wrote:

> In insects typically, the egg stage is by far the most radiosensitive.
>  There are some differences in sensitivity as you go from larval to pupal
> to adult,  but this relatively small and varies in direction among species.
>
> Still, in any case you need at least 1,000 rad and usually more to make a
> dent in the survival curve...
>
> In the "Scientific Report" in question,  there was no control of Cs form,
> no controls for each diet group and tiny, tiny numbers of larvae- only 5 in
> some cases.  Five.  Really,  five.  (Also no controls for nutrition or
> pesticide content.)
>
> This is one of those "alternative universe" publications that give the
> appearance of seriousness, and are well crafted/published to look like real
> science.  It really does take some getting used to to read them,  but they
> are a real part of our open access world!
>
> Brad
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On May 20, 2014, at 9:21 AM, "KARAM, PHILIP" <PHILIP.KARAM at nypd.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > I know that insects are more radiation-resistant than we are - but I'm
> not sure how radiation-sensitive they are in the larval stage. So I made
> the assumption that they are more sensitive in this stage than in the adult
> stage - as we are. I guess the question I had was whether or not the amount
> of intake for the larvae is realistic or if they fed the critters an
> unreasonably high amount to try to force something to happen - like what
> happens in many studies of carcinogens. And as Brian (and others)
> mentioned, it's also worth asking if they fed stable CsCl to the control
> group, if both groups had the same diet overall, etc. I agree with you that
> it is interesting, but not yet compelling.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:
> radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Brad Keck
> > Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 3:19 PM
> > To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Smithsonian - Low levels of radioactive cesium
> produced insect deformities at Fukushima
> >
> > Hi Andy
> >
> > One of the things I recall from many years ego as an undergrad ( and
> yes, I was one :) )  is that induction of effects in insects typically
> requires thousands of rad or tens of thousands of rad (back in the day,
> irradiating fruit flies was a big deal!).  This is one of many reasons I
> would say it is most unlikely that these authors have observed anything
> that is more likely to have resulted from the cesium decay than many other,
> routine and mundane factors- which are not even described, let alone
> considered.
> >
> > If they were to convince me that Only the  cesium differs, and there was
> enough dose to matter, and then  include many more experiments, I might
> have to reconsider, but on this basis, it is very inconsistent with a great
> deal of literature and great claims require great evidence!
> >
> > On the other hand, "the Daily Kos" finds this completely persuasive...
> >
> >
> > Brad
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> >> On May 19, 2014, at 9:40 AM, "KARAM, PHILIP" <PHILIP.KARAM at nypd.org>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> It looks as though the article was really published in Nature - at
> least, I went to the Nature website and did a search under the author's
> name and came up with the paper. That being the case, I'm willing to give
> it a careful read rather than dismissing it out of hand. I'd also point out
> that, while it does cite some prominent people with somewhat dubious
> credentials, it also cites Warren Sinclair and Edward Calabrese - neither
> of whom can be accused of being anti-nuclear.
> >>
> >> The authors point out that the level of uptake they studied is 22 kBq
> per kg of body weight to cause abnormalities (0.76 Bq per larva)  - 0.6 uCi
> per kg for those of us still comfortable with the older units. For a 100 kg
> person (closer to "standard" in the US I'm afraid) this is a total body
> burden of 2.2 MBq (60 uCi).  This would give a whole-body dose on the order
> of a few tens of mSv (a few rem) if memory serves me.
> >>
> >> In humans, there seems to be solid evidence that fetal doses of less
> than 50 mSv (5 rem) are not teratogenic; but I'm not sure what the data are
> for insects. I would imagine, however, that larvae are much more sensitive
> to radiation effects than are adult insects. The bottom line is that it
> seems plausible that feeding very high doses of Cs-137 to developing
> insects in their most radiation-sensitive stage might cause changes - the
> question then would seem to be whether or not these doses are plausible in
> real life (i.e. is equivalent to force-feeding rats the equivalent of
> hundreds of soft drinks worth of Nutrasweet daily) and whether or not they
> have any relevance to other creatures or to the ecosystem as a whole.
> >>
> >> Finally, I'd note that our experience with Chernobyl suggests that
> ecosystems as we find them seem to be fairly resilient. Any laboratory
> experiments - however intriguing and illuminating - should at some point be
> able to explain what we actually see in the field.
> >>
> >>
> >> Andy
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:
> radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Helbig
> >> Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 5:27 AM
> >> To: RADSAFE
> >> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Smithsonian - Low levels of radioactive cesium
> produced insect deformities at Fukushima
> >>
> >> If this is not sound scientific research, the Smithsonian, a well
> >> respected popular magazine, should be informed.
> >>
> >> Roger Helbig
> >>
> >> Christina MacPherson posted: "New study reveals deaths and mutations
> >> "increased sharply' from exposure to Fukushima contamination,
> >> "especially at low doses" -- 'Small' levels of cesium may be
> >> 'significantly toxic' -- Smithsonian: "In other words, things don't
> >> look good for the animals l"
> >>
> >>
> >> New post on nuclear-news
> >>
> >> Low levels of radioactive cesium produced insect deformities at
> Fukushima
> >>
> >> by Christina MacPherson
> >>
> >> New study reveals deaths and mutations "increased sharply' from
> >> exposure to Fukushima contamination, "especially at low doses" --
> >> 'Small' levels of cesium may be 'significantly toxic' -- Smithsonian:
> >> "In other words, things don't look good for the animals living around
> >> Fukushima"
> http://enenews.com/just-in-new-study-reveals-sharp-increase-in-deaths-and-mutations-from-exposure-to-fukushima-contamination-especially-at-low-doses-small-levels-of-cesium-may-be-significantly-toxic?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
> >>
> >> Smithsonian Magazine, May 14, 2014: Even Tiny Amounts of Radioactive
> >> Food Made Caterpillars Become Abnormal Butterflies [...] Researchers
> >> in Japan [...] discovered, even a small amount of radiation is too
> >> much. [...] The scientists collected plant material from around
> >> Fukushima and fed it to pale grass blue butterfly caterpillars. When
> >> the caterpillars turned into butterflies, they suffered from mutations
> >> and were more likely to die early [... even if they] had only eaten a
> >> small amount of artificial caesium [...] In other words, things don't
> >> look good for the animals living around Fukushima.
> >>
> >> Nature -- Scientific Reports (pdf), Published May 15, 2014: [We]
> >> examined possible relationships between the dose of ingested cesium
> >> per larva and the mortality and abnormality rates. Both the mortality
> >> and abnormality rates increased sharply, especially at low doses [...]
> >> the mortality and abnormality rates increased sharply, especially at
> >> low doses. Additionally, there seemed to be no threshold level below
> >> which no biological response could be detected. [...] the
> >> dose-response data suggests that the relatively small level of
> >> artificial cesium from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP may be significantly
> >> toxic to some individuals in butterfly populations [...] the half
> >> lethal [i.e. LD50, amount that will kill 50% of a test subjects] dose
> >> [is 1.9 Bq per larva] and the half abnormal dose [is 0.76 Bq per
> >> larva] [...] relatively small [levels] of artificial cesium from the
> >> Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP may be significantly toxic to some individuals
> >> in butterfly populations [...] we assert that the half lethal and
> >> abnormal doses we obtained were quite high. [...] it should be noted
> >> that we sampled contaminated leaves from Fukushima City, which many
> >> people inhabit as though nothing had happened [...] Implications of
> >> the half lethal and abnormal doses we obtained in the present study
> >> will impact future discussions on the effects of radioactive exposure
> >> on other organisms, including humans. [...] In conclusion, it is
> >> important to recognize the risk of internal radiation exposure due to
> >> ingested radioactive cesium, at least for the pale grass blue
> >> butterfly, and likely for certain other organisms living in the
> >> polluted area, possibly including humans. [...]
> >>
> >> View the study published by Nature here (pdf)
> >>
> >> Christina MacPherson | May 17, 2014 at 7:32 am | Categories:
> >> environment, Japan, radiation, Reference | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-hlE
> >>
> >> Comment    See all comments
> >>
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