January 19 2014
RADIONUCLIDES IN THE FOOD CHAIN: The Real Risk From Fukushima
REASSESSING THE HEALTH IMPACT OF CESIUM-137
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Accurately assessing the risks from the Fukushima disaster can be extremely challenging for the lay person confronted with a number of different ways of measuring radiation and as equally wide a range of interpretations about what those measurements mean.
In fact, it is not radiation in itself which is the main hazard from Fukushima, rather it is the release of byproducts from the nuclear reactors that are the real cause for concern. These radioactive isotopes are called ‘radionuclides’. Many of these are not found in nature and weren’t present in the environment at all before the nuclear era. Although these radioactive isotopes do indeed emit radiation, it is the way in which they do so when ingested that creates the most significant health risks from Fukushima.
The ingestion of anthropogenic (or ‘man-made’) radionuclides has been shown to cause significantly increased risk of cancer, genetic damage, inhibition of cellular metabolism, and is implicated in a wide range of other serious diseases. Some of the research into these hazards is widely known about. For example, there is a well-proven and accepted link between the ingestion of iodine-131 and thyroid cancer. Other important research, especially into the effects of cesium-137, is less well known about in Western science and medicine.
This article aims to explain the reasons why some of that research, especially that conducted after the Chernobyl disaster, has been missing from the discussion about the health impacts of Fukushima. It also calls for an urgent review of that situation and highlights some proven and effective strategies in treating those effected by contamination from cesium-137 and the serious consequences to health that it can cause.
Debunking the ‘banana analogy’
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One of the most common arguments put forward by those who want to downplay the risk from the anthropogenic nucleotides released into the environment by the Fukushima disaster is that consequences of the levels of radiation from exposure to cesium-137 can be likened to the naturally occurring radiation from potassium-40 in bananas.
For example, Tim Worstall wrote in Forbes magazine ‘they went off and tested a whole bunch of pacific blue fin tuna for the signature isotopes known to have been released in the Fukushima disaster. The result was that a standard serving of fish would expose you to about the same radiation as one-twentieth of a banana.’ (It was actually fifteen fish and the contamination was measured at 10 bequerels per kilogram.)
This is a dangerous and false analogy for a number of reasons. Firstly, potassium-40 when ingested, is spread throughout the body in equal amounts. Secondly, the body has a homeostatic mechanism for regulating the amount of potassium, so apart from the brief period in which a person may have eaten a large quantity of bananas and they remain in the gut, the amount of potassium in the body remains within a regulated threshold. Cesium-137 does not behave like this. Not only does it concentrate in particular organs, the difference between those concentrations can be as much as one hundredfold.
Cesium-137 is also an entirely anthropogenic creation, whereas potassium is necessary for healthy cellular metabolism and all potassium contains some radioactive potassium-40. All cesium-137 originates inside a man-made nuclear reaction of some kind. Although if we were to encounter concentrated potassium-40 in our environment, it would carry a real radiological risk, in reality that never happens. Cesium-137 by contrast, can be encountered through radioactive fallout and subsequent incorporation in the food chain in exactly that way. The health risks of ingesting it, although not widely reported in the media, are considerable. If you were to eat the occasional portion of blue fin tuna fished from the West coast, at the levels of contamination so far reported your risk may not be great, but it should be noted that the scientist making that study (Nicholas Fisher of Stony Brook University in New York) said that blue fin tuna should continue to be monitored as any increase in that level would be a concern.
On the other hand, if you live in Fukushima prefecture and especially if you are a child, your risk from cesium-137 contamination may be very much considerably higher. Japan’s Fisheries Agency says that ocean and fish contamination has sharply declined since the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when 53 percent of fish sampled off Fukushima showed radiation levels surpassing the safety limit of 100 bequerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) of cesium-137, to just 2.2 percent of samples testing unsafe in November 2012.
However, individual fish have been found that measure very considerably higher than this: as much as 12,400 Bq/kg in one case. Even fish below the official ‘safety limit’ may also pose a serious health risk. When this is added to the impact of airborne cesium-137 in fallout from the initial explosions at Fukushima Daiichi and the cumulative impacts of environmental contact from contaminated soil and water, many people in Japan may well have been, or are being, exposed to unsafe levels of cesium-137, with serious potential health consequences. It must also be noted that this contamination is spread far beyond the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, including levels of serious contamination from cesium-137 of 3,200 Bq/kg that have been found in soil sampled in Tokyo.
The health risks of ingesting cesium-137
Once radioactive cesium is internalized, it is absorbed, distributed, and excreted in the same manner as stable cesium. The internal radiation dose from cesium-137 is composed of both beta and gamma emissions. The short-range beta radiation produces a localized dose, while the more penetrating gamma radiation contributes to a whole body dose. Molecular damage results from the direct ionization of atoms that are encountered by beta and gamma radiation and by interactions of resulting free radicals with nearby atoms. Tissue damage results when the molecular damage is extensive and not sufficiently repaired in a timely manner.
The toxicology brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, ‘internal exposure to Cs-137, through ingestion or inhalation, allows the radioactive material to be distributed in the soft tissues, especially muscle tissue, exposing these tissues to the beta particles and gamma radiation and increasing cancer risk.’
Over-simplistic analysis of the health risks of ingesting radionuclides is often given by commentators, even by scientists, as they fail to discern the difference between the danger of the ionizing radiation from the initial dose at ingestion and the overall risk from a radionuclide posed by its continued emissions as it passes through the metabolic processes of the body.
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