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Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks A reprint from American Scientist the magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society This reprint is provided for personal and noncommercial use. For any other use, please send a request to Permissions, American Scientist, P.O. Box 13975, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, U.S.A., or by electronic mail to [email protected]. ©Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society and other rightsholders Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks Exposures 50 years ago still have health implications today that will continue into the future Steven L. Simon, André Bouville and Charles E. Land rior to 1950, only limited consider- weapons in the atmosphere. By the ear- explosive power of 440 megatons of Pation was given to the health im- ly 1960s, there was no place on Earth TNT (see Figure 2). pacts of worldwide dispersion of ra- where the signature of atmospheric The earliest concern about health ef- dioactivity from nuclear testing. But in nuclear testing could not be found in fects from exposure to fallout focused on the following decade, humanity began soil, water and even polar ice. possible genetic alterations among off- to significantly change the global ra- Cancer investigators who specialize in spring of the exposed. However, herita- diation environment by testing nuclear radiation effects have, over the interven- ble effects of radiation exposure have not ing decades, looked for another signature been observed from decades of follow-up of nuclear testing—an increase in cancer studies of populations exposed either to Steven L. Simon received a Ph.D. in radiological health rates. And although it is difficult to de- medical x rays or to the direct gamma ra- sciences from Colorado State University in 1985. He tect such a signal amid the large num- diation received by survivors of the Hiro- has served on the faculties of the University of Utah and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ber of cancers arising from “natural” or shima and Nagasaki bombs. Rather, such He spent five years directing the Marshall Islands “unknown” causes, we and others have studies have demonstrated radiation-re- Nationwide Radiological Study and also participated found both direct and indirect evidence lated risks of leukemia and thyroid cancer in the radiological monitoring of the former nuclear that radioactive debris dispersed in the within a decade after exposure, followed test sites at Johnston Island, in Algeria, and in French atmosphere from testing has adversely by increased risks of other solid tumors Polynesia. Simon joined the National Cancer Institute affected public health. Frequently, how- in later years. Studies of populations ex- (NCI) in 2000 and now focuses on retrospective dose ever, there is misunderstanding about posed to radioactive fallout also point to estimation in support of epidemiologic studies of radio- the type and magnitude of those effects. increased cancer risk as the primary late active fallout and occupational exposure in medicine. Thus today, with heightened fears about health effect of exposure. As studies of André Bouville was born in France and obtained his the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, it biological samples (including bone, thy- Ph.D. in physics at the Université Paul-Sabatier in Toulouse in 1970. He served as a consultant to the is worthwhile to review what we know roid glands and other tissues) have been United Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic about exposure to fallout and its associ- undertaken, it has become increasingly Radiation for 30 years and the International Commis- ated cancer risks. clear that specific radionuclides in fallout sion on Radiological Protection (ICRP) for 17 years. are implicated in fallout-related cancers Bouville joined the National Cancer Institute in 1984 Historical Background and other late effects. and has since been heavily involved in the estimation The first test explosion of a nuclear of radiation doses resulting from radioactive fallout weapon, Trinity, was on a steel tower in Nuclear Explosions: The Basics from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests and from the south-central New Mexico on July 16, Nuclear explosions involve the sudden Chornobyl accident. Charles E. Land received a Ph.D. 1945. Following that test, nuclear bombs conversion of a small portion of atomic in statistics from the University of Chicago. He stud- were dropped on Hiroshima and Naga- nuclear mass into an enormous amount ied the risk of radiation-related cancer at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and the Radiation Effects saki, Japan, in August of 1945. In 1949, of energy by the processes of nuclear Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan, before join- the Soviet Union conducted its first test fission or fusion. Fission releases energy ing the NCI in 1975. Land served on the ICRP for 20 at a site near Semipalatinsk, Kazakh- by splitting uranium or plutonium at- years and was instrumental in producing the 1985 stan. The U.S., the Soviet Union and oms, each fission creating on average National Institutes of Health radio-epidemiological ta- the United Kingdom continued testing two radioactive elements (products), one bles and the 2003 NCI-CDC interactive computer pro- nuclear weapons in the atmosphere un- relatively light and the other relatively gram developed to assist adjudication of compensation til 1963, when a limited test ban treaty heavy. Fusion, triggered by a fission ex- claims for cancers following occupational exposures to was signed. France and China, coun- plosion that forces tritium or deuterium radiation. His research interests include quantifying tries that were not signatories to the atoms to combine into larger atoms, pro- lifetime radiation-related cancer risk with emphasis 1963 treaty, undertook atmospheric test- duces more powerful explosive yields on implications of uncertainty for public policy. Ad- dress for Simon: Division of Cancer Epidemiology and ing from 1960 through 1974 and 1964 than fission. Both processes create three Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Insti- through 1980, respectively. Altogether, types of radioactive debris: fission prod- tutes of Health, 6120 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD 504 devices were exploded at 13 prima- ucts, activation products (elements that 20892. Email: [email protected]. ry testing sites, yielding the equivalent become radioactive by absorbing an ad- © 2006 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Reproduction 48 American Scientist, Volume 94 with permission only. Contact [email protected]. ditional neutron) and leftover fissionable material used in bomb construction that does not fission during the explosion. A nuclear explosion creates a large fireball within which everything is vaporized. The fireball rises rapidly, incorporating soil or water, then ex- pands as it cools and loses buoyancy. The radioactive debris and soil that are initially swept upwards by the explo- sion are then dispersed in the direc- tions of the prevailing winds. Fallout consists of microscopic particles that are deposited on the ground. How People Are Exposed to Fallout The radioactive cloud usually takes the form of a mushroom, that familiar icon of the nuclear age. As the cloud reaches its stabilization height, it moves down- wind, and dispersion causes vertical and lateral cloud movement. Because wind speeds and directions vary with altitude (Figure 3), radioactive materials spread over large areas. Large particles settle lo- cally, whereas small particles and gases may travel around the world. Rainfall can cause localized concentrations far from the test site. On the other hand, large atmospheric explosions injected ra- dioactive material into the stratosphere, 10 kilometers or more above the ground, where it could remain for years and sub- Figure 1. Between 1945 and 1980, the U.S., the U.S.S.R, the U.K., France and China carried out more than 500 atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons totaling the explosive equivalent of 440 megatons of TNT. These tests injected ra- dioactive material into the atmosphere, much of which became widely dispersed before be- ing deposited as fallout. Cancer investigators have been studying the health effects of radio- active fallout for decades, making radiation one of the best-understood agents of environ- mental injury. The legacy of open-air nuclear weapons testing includes a small but signifi- cant increase in thyroid cancer, leukemia and certain solid tumors. Mushroom clouds, such as the one from the 74-kiloton test HOOD on July 5, 1957 (detonated from a balloon at 1,500 feet altitude), are a universally recognized icon of nuclear explosions. The characteristic cap forms when the fireball from the explosion cools sufficiently to lose buoyancy. HOOD was the largest atmospheric test conducted at the Nevada Test Site (and in the continental U.S.). Fortunately, the U.S., the Soviet Union and the U.K. stopped atmospheric testing in 1963, when the nations signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty. (France ceased atmospheric testing in 1974 and China in 1980.) President John F. Kennedy signed the treaty on October 5, 1963 (bottom). (Top photograph from the Nevada Test Site, U.S. Department of Energy. Bottom photograph from the National Archives.) © 2006 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Reproduction www.americanscientist.org 2006 January–February 49 with permission only. Contact [email protected]. ������������� ������� ������������� �������������� �������� ����� ����� ������ ������������ ����� ������ ������ ������ ������� ������������� ������ ������� �������� ������ ����������������
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