No safe dose

While many plant and animal experiments leave no doubt that radiation exposure can alter genetic material and cause disease, and human data also show DNA and chromosomal damage associated with exposure to ionizing radiation, a resultant effect on genetic diseases has not yet been observed in the case of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors.

This does not mean that there is no such effect in humans. It may be that there were genetic abnormalities produced that were incompatible with life and those pregnancies therefore ended in miscarriage. It may also be that an increased rate of genetic abnormalities will be found in future generations, that is, the changes will skip one or more generations. Radiation-induced genetic damage is likely to manifest mainly as multi-system developmental abnormalities.

Evidence has emerged recently that the cell may also exhibit the phenomenon of “genomic instability”, where the progeny of an irradiated cell may unexpectedly become highly susceptible to general mutation and damage is detected only after several cell divisions. This may also occur in the progeny of cells close to the cell which is traversed by the radiation track but which themselves are not directly hit (“bystander effect”).

This phenomenon has been reproduced several times in laboratory studies of human cells but has not been confirmed in living humans. Such studies would necessarily need to be extraordinarily long. However if the theory of induced genetic instability is correct, then the human gene pool could be permanently altered.

Radiation health authorities use scientific modelling to calculate and set “permissible limits” for ionizing radiation exposure. As the scientific techniques have become more sophisticated, the recommended exposures for the public and the workforce have steadily been reduced: levels once regarded as “safe” are now known to be associated with cancers, bone marrow malignancies and genetic effects.

The dose limits recommended in 1991 by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) which are most widely used internationally are more than 12 times lower that those recommended in the early 1950s at the time of the first British nuclear test explosions in Australia.

The growing scientific literature refining our understanding of the pathogenic properties of ionising radiation has dramatically increased pressure on the nuclear industry to reduce radiation exposures.

However, in their rush to give the thumbs-up to nukes, the Prime Minister’s team of “experts”, led by former Telstra chief and ex-nuclear physicist Ziggy Switkowski, make light of the health burden attributable to the nuclear industry.

They are silent on the recent study published in the British Medical Journal which revealed that a cumulative exposure for adult workers in the nuclear industry of 100mSv - the current recommended five-year occupational dose limit - would lead to a 10 per cent increase in mortality from all cancers, and a 19 per cent increased mortality from leukemia (of types other than chronic lymphatic leukemia).

They are silent on multiple reported and controversial clusters of childhood cancers and congenital malformations in the vicinity of nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities.

They frequently assert a record of “good management” in the Australian nuclear industry to date: a clear misrepresentation in view of hundreds of instances of mismanagement (leaks, spills, contamination, regulatory breaches) at Ranger, Olympic Dam and Beverly and the total failure of either industry or regulators to monitor health impacts in local populations despite known distribution of radio-toxins into habitat and food chain.

The Switkowski Report does not provide either “a factual base” or “an analytical framework” for discussion: it gives a whitewash to a complex and controversial subject. Not only is it likely to exacerbate Australia’s greenhouse emissions by vociferously promoting the nuclear non-solution, but it endangers Australians long-term by threatening to expand an industry whose toxic legacy will continue for many generations.