Radiation: no safe levels

Genetic effects of Chernobyl radiation: Genomic instability?

This Ukraine province study concentrated on the second effect – teratogenesis. However, remember that in this area, there is a unique population. This isolated ethnic group stays within one area. So, here we have a third generation exposed to radiation since before their conception. This is because for some young women, say 16 years old in 1986, even if they were not pregnant, their oocytes absorbed radiation. 

Later, in pregnancy, their foetus would be exposed to that radiation. Those babies, now teenagers, will in turn, have their babies exposed to radiation-affected chromosomes.

So here, this particular population is indeed a test case for that third, delayed, effect. This brings in the question of gene mutations and chromosomes – the unpredictable subject of genomic instability. It is not surprising that politicians, and people in general, do not understand genomic instability. Scientists do not understand it, or what it means for future populations.

The consequences of genomic instability have not been studied in humans. We know that abnormal genes cause abnormal cells, abnormal tissues, and hence, abnormal organisms, resulting in advanced aging processes and cancer. Genomic instability in a population will produce changes, some perceptible, some not. It will cause infertility and changes in the rates of degenerative diseases.  It is hard to study genomic instability in humans, for example, how do you study a fertilised egg that never gets implanted?

Still, research into this is now an emerging science being studied with human cells in-vitro.Genomic instability is also now studied in a variety of non-human organisms. There are research results on butterflies and birds. Danish ornithologists found very serious instability in Chernobyl - the same results that are now being found in Fukushima. Results include weakened birds unable to migrate, microcephaly, crooked wings, abnormal tail feathers, and many male barn swallows are sterile.

The Ukraine research team chose strontium as the radioactive isotope to study. Radiation dosimetry is complex because different radioisotopes affect different parts of the body. Official measurements are usually done on caesium – probably because it is the easiest and least expensive to measure. Strontium measuring is much more specialised and expensive. Strontium is absorbed like calcium. Teeth and bones bind calcium. Strontium is measured by U.S. consistently and was measured after every atomic bomb test. The Ukraine study found that strontium was pervasive in the area.

What is the message from research in the Chernobyl affected population?

The message is that science and medicine must turn their attention to young women, pregnant women, and children. There really can be no doubt about this. It is quite scandalous that official studies, both after Chernobyl and Fukushima, continue to ignore children. The only emphasis on children is in measuring thyroid abnormalities, and the epidemic of thyroid cancer in Ukraine children. Apart from that, all the attention is on cancer, and adults. There is no registry of pregnant women. There is no monitoring of birth abnormalities.Even radiation “acceptable” standards are set for adult males, not for women and children.

The absolute priority should be women of reproductive age and children and whatever affects them will affect the most important principles of preventive health. There should be monitoring of congenital malformations. Ionising radiation is a most likely cause, though there are other causes as well. Ionising radiation is prevalent in areas other than Chernobyl and Fukushima, coming from coal burning plants and from dumping waste. Because there is no monitoring of congenital malformations, we have no baseline.

There is now hope that official research priorities will change. There is a continually growing movement to free up the World Health Organisation from its present inability to do medical research in Chernobyl and Fukushima. From 1959 until now, the World Health Organisation has been hamstrung by its agreement with the IAEA. On May 12, 2011 history was quietly made when the new WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said “There is no safe low level of radiation."