UN Report on Chernobyl; Radiation vs. Stress

[james.g.barnes@ATT.NET]

Good afternoon all,



I don't contest the issue about stress-related illnesses 

being induced by wholesale evacuations and relocations.  

I think that the detriments of these disruptions were 

probably not correctly evaluated in the ALARA 

determinations (i.e., not adequately addressing quality 

of life issues); more damage was done than avoided.  From 

what I have understood both from reading and discussions 

with colleagues in Russia, the initial conditions 

justified evacuation; what may not have been justified 

was the long-termed exclusion from the zones once the 

situation had been brought under control.



There is another generic aspect of this I would like to 

address.  There seems to be an operational assumption 

that the ONLY health effect from radiation exposure is 

cancer.  From a mechanical perspective, cancer is easily 

measured in mortality studies, and at higher doses it is 

fairly easy to demonstrate the link.  Morbidity (getting 

sick but not necessarily dieing) is not so easily 

measured.  Because of the difficulty of performing such 

a study, there aren't that many morbidity studies on 

radiation; and those that do exist are pretty much open 

to interpretation as to cause.  I have always been 

curious if there were effects from radiation that were 

present, but that could not be found due to the 

limitations of morbidity studies.  And if these effects 

exist, then how can we say that cancer is the only 

endpoint?



I spent some time looking into the literature on 

non-carcinogenic effects.  There is a study out of 

Obninsk (Ivanov) that demonstrates a link between 

non-carcinogenic effects and dose. There are several 

reports of an "accelerated aging" effect being seen in 

liquidators.  I think there is good evidence from 

radiobiology literature that suggests moderate doses of 

radiation (delivered at relatively high dose rates) can 

trigger illness (especially if stress is also involved).  

There is clear evidence that the neurologic system is 

functionally sensitive to radiation (at fairly high dose 

rates, but remarkably low doses).  In certain 

individuals, this sensitivity could trigger sickness 

behaviors.



I don't think this is an issue with residents of the 

Chernobyl affected areas (doses and dose rates were too 

low), but I do think it is a factor with the liquidators 

(and perhaps a contributor to illnesses in the Mayak 

populations as well).



I wrote a paper on the subject that was recently 

published in Medical Hypotheses.  The abstract is 

available at:



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retr

ieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11601868&dopt=Abstract



If any of you would like a reprint, please email me and I 

will get a copy to you.





Jim Barnes, CHP

james.g.barnes@att.net





========================



Friends, 

 

Confirming the LNT fraud continues! Maybe its time that 

we reconsider

radiation health effects and radiation protection 

policies that

increasingly demonstrate only a willingness to defraud 

the public!? (As

the head of one national program hissed at me in 1999, 

"You just want to

kill the golden goose!")

 

Note that the UN reports here are NOT just UNSCEAR, but 

the Development

Programme and UNICEF!

 

Do you have access to the UN Report, or other media 

reports?

 

Regards, Jim Muckerheide

Radiation, Science, and Health

====================

 'Myth' of Chernobyl suffering exposed 



Relocation and hand-outs have caused more illness than 

radiation, a new

UN study concludes. 



Anthony Browne

Sunday January 6, 2002

The Observer <http://www.observer.co.uk>  

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