Atomic Radiation is More Harmful to Women and Children

Mary Olson

Nuclear Information & Resource Service

www.nirs.org

No Safe Dose of Radiation

• All it takes is a single living cell and a single emission from a radioactive nucleus to start a fatal cancer

• Does cancer result from every dose?

No, but death is possible from a dose so small it is not measurable – or other impacts such as loss of an embryo

No Safe Dose is not a folk song

• EPA Standards explicitly state “there is no safe dose”

• US Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Chapter 10 of the US Code of Regulations, part 20 and an additional regulation called ALARA reflect this

• National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR I – VII) affirm “No Safe Dose”

• ! And data from human populations supports

Nuclear Energy is thought of as “CLEAN”

Only because DIRTY radiation is INVISIBLE

Nuclear Factories have Routine Releases of Radioactivity

People can get sick from theseBUT

On a BAD DAY the whole world can get contaminated with

radioactive fall-out

APRIL 26 1986 – CHERNOBYL EXPLODES and FIRE STARTSNote Spain on lower left, Scandinavia center top, “Black Tornado is the PLUME of HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE FUEL PARTICLES

40% of Europe contaminated above 4,000 Bq / meter2

Radiation impacts our cells

Ionizing radiation part of the electromagnetic spectrum

Charged and energized subatomic

waves (X-rays, Gamma) and

particles (beta, alpha, neutron)

Can damage living cells and tissues

At very high doses, radation damage can be seen

Radiation burn from accident or malfunction

At Lower doses it takes a microscope but we can see Radiation Induced Chromosomal Aberrations

Common from high-end of “low-dose” spectrum

US and international radiation standards assume that the individual getting the “dose” is an adult male. Turns out they are the most resistant part of the lifecycle to radiation. Women and children are not protected to the same level by these standards.

Life-cycle “dose – response” curve to ionizing radiation

PROTECT FIRST, STUDY SECOND – WE DON’T YET KNOW WHY GIRLS AND WOMEN ARE MORE VULNERABLE TO RADIATION –BUT WE KNOW ENOUGH NOW TO DEMAND BETTER PROTECTION

Eating, drinking, breathing in radioactivity is very different than getting an X-ray. All the radioactivity results in radiation exposure –and continues until it (hopefully) leaves the body.

Visible damage to lung tissue from Plutonium

On alpha emitting particle will result in an extremely low dose to body - - but VERY HIGH dose to tissue

National Academy of Science: Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation BEIR VII Phase 2

Women and Children not Protected

Regulation of Ionizing Radiation

US Nuclear Regulatory Com.

• 3.5 fatal cancers in every 1000 (men) exposed

• = 1 death in every 286 men

• JAPAN –

• 2000 millirem/ year goal for school children – from time in school only

• 2 rems = 1 in 4 children getting cancer

EPA -- Superfund

• 1 cancer in a million

• 1 cancer in 100,000

• 1 cancer in 10,000

We can be pro-nuclear: the best nuclear reactor is a nice safe 93 million miles away – requires no cooling water, waste disposal or special security. THE SUN!