Radiation-induced Diabetes and Spinal Curvature?

[bobcherry@cox.net]

[Please turn on your sarcasm detector.]



I already realize how limited my knowledge of the biological effects of ionizing radiation must be considering all that I have learned from the anti-DU crowd. Now I see I also have much to learn from such esteemed journals as .The Republican.. I am referring to this article:



http://www.masslive.com/holyokeplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1098863268180343.xml



The article is about a 16-year old Russian who is in the United States for surgery to correct curvature in his spine and thus enable him to walk. 



The article reports, .Sasha's illness is a result of the Chernobyl accident in what was then Soviet Ukraine - the world's worst civil nuclear disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986. The Kozyavins, like thousands of other Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians, live in the area affected by radioactive contamination from that exploded nuclear power plant. There are significantly increased rates of radiation-induced diseases in the area, including diabetes, thyroid cancer, heart and spinal diseases..



Thyroid cancer I knew about. Diabetes and heart and spinal diseases caused by Chernobyl in a person born about two years after the accident are effects with which I am not familiar. Please refer me to the peer-reviewed literature that describes them.



[You may now turn off your sarcasm detector.]



Rhetorical questions: Must all human suffering in Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo be assigned to radioactive contamination? Didn't it exist before Chernobyl and the use of DU?



Bob Cherry





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