THIS CHAPTER DISCUSSES SOME OF THE MANY HAZARDS OF
LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVITY.
Low level radioactivity includes
radiation released from the routine operation of the world’s 433 nuclear
power plants, plus leaks and accidents, nuclear fuel recycling, uranium
mining and other related activities.
||Radiation causes infertility. The global fertility rate
has dropped by nearly half since 1955.
|Radiation weakens the immune system. A hundred nation
study on quality of health found the United States was number 1 in 1943.
By 1992, the United States was number 100, according to a U.S. Public Health
Statistics Report. Globally, health is deteriorating with the incidence
of cancer, heart disease, allergies and infectious diseases increasing.
|Even at low levels radiation may increase mutations of
bacteria and virus. Mutations are causing the appearance of new diseases
such as Reye's Syndrome, Legionnaires' Disease and Lyme Disease.
|The percentage of oxygen in the air is down to about
19 percent. The standard reference amount is 21 percent. Oxygen is formed
by trees and plankton. Trees and plankton can be killed by radiation.
|Large-scale breakdown of the protective ozone layer in
the stratosphere was initiated in 1958 by high atmosphere bomb tests,
and continues due to releases from nuclear power plants and reprocessing
plants. Radioactive Krypton-85 goes to the stratosphere where it greatly
enhances CFC ozone damage.
The global fertility rate has dropped by nearly half since
1955! The cumulative effects of radiation-caused infertility raise the
possibility of gradual human extinction.
Escalating infertility in the United States has forced
couples to turn to the fast emerging new world of assisted reproduction
and pre-made embryos in ever growing numbers. A front page
New York Times article (November 23, 1997, “Clinics Selling Embryos Made
for Adoption”) looks at the “anguished infertile couples” who “are more
than willing to pay for whatever infertility clinics can offer.”
Fear of the “population bomb” of the 1960’s has turned into the “birth
dearth” of the 1990’s.
The so-called replacement rate is 2.1 children, which
is needed to keep the population from falling. In the year 2010 fertility
rates hovered between 1.1 and 1.4. In the less developed countries
fertility rates were 6.0 in 1972 and had dropped to 2.9 in 2010.The current
fertility rate in the developed nations is 1.6 children per woman. According
to the CIA World Factbook, 2010, the fertility rate of the United States
has nearly halved in the last 50 years.
Dr. John Gofman, an eminent scientist, medical doctor
and eloquent spokesman against the hazards of nuclear power explained,
back in the 1970’s, “that the worry about over-population would become
a non-worry due to radioactivity.” (Tamplin, Arthur R. and John Gofman.
Population Control Through Nuclear Pollution. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1970.)
This prediction is confirmed in the decline in fertility
among those born during the period of atmospheric bomb testing between1955
Dr. Rosalie Bertell, mathematician, epidemiologist and
founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health has
been researching infertility for some years and feels it is the “cutting
edge” of radiation health damage, surpassing immune damage in the extent
of its implications, as it raises the possibility of human extinction.
In response to questions on the status of this research,
Dr. Rosalie Bertell wrote in a personal correspondence (November 1997):
“We found in Kerala, India, that when comparing couples matched for socioeconomic
status, class, religion, occupation and life style, those living on the
high radiation background (300 to 3000 mrad per year) had twice the infertility
rate of those living on the normal background soil (below 300 mrad
The Baby Boomers are the group born in the USA after the
war, from 1945 through 1963, and these are the years of atmospheric bomb
testing as well as the start of the nuclear power industry. They show a
high rate of immune related diseases and also an increasing rate of infertility.
Data from the U.S. Public Health Service illustrate the difference between
the fertility rates of the Baby Boomers and those who are called Pre-Baby
Percent Women Infertile, by Age
U.S. 1965 and 1976
(Reproductive Impairments Among Married Couples United
States U.S. Public Health Service,Washington, D.C., December 1982)
The two surveys in the chart, done in 1965 and 1976 by
the US Public Health Service, show that the percent of infertility of the
baby boomers increased, and the percent of infertility of the pre-baby
boomers born before bomb testing and nuclear power, decreased.
In an article in the conservative journal Foreign Affairs
Nicholas Eberstadt says:
“If the twentieth century was marked by vast improvements
in public health, then the twenty-first century is likely to be defined
by steep declines in fertility rates.”
He points out this new demographic reality includes the
West, Europe and rising economies. (Eberstadt, Nicholas. “The Demographic
Future: What Population Growth Means for the Global Economy.” Foreign
Affairs 89, no. 6 Nov/Dec 2010).
On the correlation between low dose radiation and weakened
immunity radiation physicist
Dr. Ernest Sternglass stated in a 1986 article: “It appears
that perhaps the most serious unanticipated effects of fallout is long-term,
persistent immune deficiency.” He adds, “It can weaken the immune defenses
of the body at very low total doses leading to unexpectedly large increases
in infectious diseases and cancers.” (Int. J. Biosocial Res., July 1986,
Initially, zealous industry misrepresentation of the facts
led the public to believe that small amounts of radiation were of no special
concern. Yet these low levels are exactly the cause of weak immunity and
Authorities couldn’t ignore emerging data, and in December
1989 the government sponsored National Academy of Sciences, in a report
titled 'Biological Effects of Radiation', stated that there was no safe
level of radiation.
Low protracted doses of radiation cause physiological
damage through the formation of free radicals. A free radical is a molecule
with an imbalance in electrons which can destabilize other molecules resulting
in cellular damage and disease.
In high, short doses like the Hiroshima bomb blast, radiation
primarily causes direct damage to the nucleus of cells, where the genes
that control the functioning of the cell are located. In contrast, low
doses acting continuously over time produce their damage indirectly through
the generation of free radicals that destroy cell-membranes; hundreds to
thousands of times more efficiently than might be expected in calculations
related to high-dose damage. So the everyday amount of radiation that is
released as part of the normal operation of the world’s 400 nuclear power
plants is a very grave concern. Nuclear power plants release steam and
water as part of their normal operations, and these releases, even though
they may be partially filtered, disperse radiation into our air and drinking
water, onto farmland and into our food.
The everyday releases of low-level radioactivity by nuclear
power plants has been found to cause several kinds of health damage; including
premature births, congenital defects, infant mortality, mental retardation,
heart ailments, arthritis, diabetes, allergies, asthma, cancer, genetic
damage and chronic fatigue syndrome. It has been linked to previously unknown
infectious diseases and the resurgence of old ones by damaging the developing
white blood cells originating in the bone marrow and thus weakening the
For more information on health damage see chapters 3,
4 and 5.
MUTATED BACTERIA AND VIRUS
It is well known that radiation can cause mutations in
bacteria and viruses. Andrei Sakharov, the famous Russian physicist, described
in his 1992 Memoirs that even at low levels radiation could increase mutations
of bacteria and viruses. His predictions, which were originally made in
1958, have come true and we are seeing new ailments such as Reye's syndrome
which first appeared in 1963, and Legionnaires' disease, which is caused
by a bacteria that was not threatening prior to 1976. AIDS may be related
to a mutated virus combined with a weakened immunity in a generation born
after the first nuclear weapons were detonated.
Of particular interest is Lyme Disease which first appeared
in 1975 near the Millstone and Haddam Neck nuclear power plants in Connecticut.
Dr. Jay Gould points out:
“In 1975 there were 59 cases of Lyme Disease
recorded; in 1985 the number increased to 863, mainly in the two counties
of Middlesex and New London, CT near the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant.
Just as increases in cancer may be linked to the huge radiation release
from Millstone in 1975, so too may be the tick-borne Lyme disease epidemic.
The Lyme Disease is carried by a spirochete that had not been as harmful
to humans prior to 1975. It is well known that radiation can cause mutations
in bacteria. The enormous 1975 Millstone radiation release may have caused
just such a mutation in the tick-borne spirochete.” (Gould, J and
B Goldman. Deadly Deceit: Low-Level Radiation and High-Level Cover-Up.
New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1990.)
So we have a double challenge: the weaker immune system
and the new diseases resulting from mutated pathogens.
Dr. Ernest Sternglass further explains:
“When the radiation from such isotopes as strontium-89
and 90 in the bone marrow mutates an existing virus that
invades the T-cells of the immune system and kills them
in the process of replication, the stage is set for the complete
collapse of the immune defenses and resulting death from opportunistic
infections or cancer.” (Ernest Sternglass, “The Implications of Chernobyl
for Human Health”, International Journal of Biosocial Research, no.8,
p. 19, July 1986)
LOSS OF OXYGEN GLOBALLY
Walter Russell, a visionary artist and scientist predicted
in his book Atomic Suicide, published in 1957, that due to man-made
radioactivity we would suffer a reduction of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Like the predictions of Andrei Sakharov in the 1950’s, Walter Russell’s
foresight is now coming true. Our current oxygen levels are down to about
19 percent (BioTech News 1997). The standard reference amount is
21 percent oxygen. Some experts say that we may have originally evolved
in an atmosphere of 38 percent oxygen. Now, due to the loss of the two
main producers of oxygen, forests and ocean plankton, measurements as low
as 12 percent and 15 percent have been made in heavily industrialized areas.
This oxygen-depleted condition is a contributing cause of the generalized
lack of well-being that many are experiencing. We need oxygen to
live and to thrive!
Trees and other land plants provide about half our oxygen,
and plankton provides the rest. Phytoplankton, the base of the marine food
chain, is declining. Various studies confirm this: Plankton in parts of
the Antarctic Ocean had already declined by up to 12 percent when S. Weiler
testified to the Senate Commerce Committee in November of 1991. Trees absorb
radioactive carbon-14 in place of stable forms of carbon and in this way
they are gradually killed. In The Petkau Effect, Ralph Graeub describes
how radioactivity has harmed trees and forests:
“It is assumed that the decisive physiological
damage resulting in current forest death must have begun during the 1950’s.
This is depicted in a reduction in density and width of tree rings, and
in reduced growth, which is true in the Northern Hemisphere and in the
Himalayas....Neither aging, location, nor climate can be considered as
the possible sole cause of damage....The growth ring of a tree shows exactly
what effects the tree has experienced, both in terms of time and seriousness....During
the 1950’s and 1960’s, there must have been a global wave of air pollution
which caused the initial damage.”
The author speculates that it may not be just the usual chemicals
which are so damaging to trees. And he notes that these trees are
mainly within the 30th to 60th parallels of northern latitude. “This zone
contains the most nuclear power plants -- over 300 -- and almost all nuclear
reprocessing centers. Also, the vast majority of nuclear weapons tests
occurred in this area.”
The protective layer of ozone around the Earth filters
out solar and cosmic rays and prevents them from reaching our planet. Ozone
surrounds the Earth in a layer between six and thirty miles above sea level.
It is formed when light rays strike molecules of oxygen, which is 02, and
causes them to break into two separate oxygen atoms, or an 0 and 0. An
atom of oxygen then combines with a molecule of oxygen and forms ozone
which is 03. It breaks down again and then recombines again. And so on;
unless it is interfered with. Radiation interrupts the process of
1957 - Walter Russell published his book Atomic
Suicide, whose principle message was that the development of the nuclear
weaponry and nuclear industry, if it continued, would eventually destroy
the planet’s oxygen.
“The element of surprise which could delay the
discovery of the great danger, and thus allow more plutonium piles to come
into existence, is the fact that scientists are looking near the ground
for fallout dangers. The greatest radioactive dangers are accumulating
from eight to twelve miles up in the stratosphere. The upper atmosphere
is already charged with death-dealing radioactivity, for which it has not
yet sent us the bill. It is slowly coming and we will have to pay for it
in another century, even if atomic energy plants ceased today.”
1982 and 1984 - Two German reports conclude that radioactive
krypton, which is released in the daily operation of nuclear plants and
through the reprocessing of used reactor fuel elements, is affecting the
distribution of the electric fields in the atmosphere.
(Russell, Walter and Lao. Atomic Suicide?
University of Science and Philosophy. Virginia 1957 p. 18)
1987 - The ozone hole is twice as large as the
U.S. It is discovered that ozone is not only diminishing over the south
pole but globally.
1987 - 1988 - Consensus has it that various man-made
chemicals are the sole cause of ozone breakdown; especially compounds of
chlorine (CFC’s) and bromine (from halon fire extinguishers) and there
was an attempt to implicate hair spray and refrigerators. A leading
authority on the ozone problem, NASA’s Dr. Robert Watson, admitted many
scientists were “baffled” by findings of ozone depletion even in areas
where CFC’s action was negligible. He called the extent of the hole’s growth
April 6, 1989 - “Scientists reported yesterday
that for the first time they have detected an increase in “biologically
relevant” levels of ultraviolet radiation reaching the ground as a result
of the ozone hole over the Antarctica.” This is the first indication
that the depletion of ozone is beginning to cause the potentially harmful
effect that has long been predicted.” (The Washington Post 4/6/89)
Late 1990 - University of California researchers
publish their findings that phytoplankton are reproducing less profusely
than before. Observing the plankton in the Belingshausen Sea (in the Antarctic)
they found that increased UV appears to be suppressing the phytoplankton’s
productivity by 6 to 12%.
1992 - Both NASA and The World Meteorological Society
reported 10 to 25% ozone depletion measured over the northern United States,
Canada, Europe and the Antarctic; and the ozone hole is now three times
the size of the United States.
1994 - An article in a German journal Strahlentelex
(March 3, 1994) argues that the nuclear industry is responsible for the
hole in the ozone. The authors, Giebel and Sternglass explain that radioactive
gases like krypton-85 from nuclear plants and from the recycling of spent
fuel go up to the stratosphere where they create water droplets from the
moisture which in turn form ice crystals which enhance the destruction
of the ozone by the fluorohydrocarbons.
(Krypton-85 has a half-life of 10.7 years and a whole
life of 217 years.)
March 1996 - The World Meteorological Agency reports
“the extremely worrying” development of an unprecedented 45 percent ozone
thinning over Greenland, Scandinavia and Western Siberia.
Summer 1997 - Research from the Antarctic Marine
Living Resources Program find “krill abundance in the Antarctic Peninsula
region is down 60 to 90 percent since the early 1980’s”.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If you can get them asking the wrong question,
you don't have to worry about the answers.
Given all the damage to the Earth and to all living creatures
caused by the nuclear industry, the natural response would be to find it
unacceptable and to phase it out in favor of clean renewable energies.
However, our attention has been diverted. The wrong questions are
proposed. We respond to these questions and so miss the larger point.
We do not need to ask how we can meet the inflated western
energy demands, but we should inquire how we can live appropriately without
causing harm. We can stop producing more radioactive poison; phase
out nuclear power plants. Go for efficiency and for clean, renewable
energy. We can clean up and store radioactive waste with responsibility.
If this is our true intention, it could be done. If not, we are destined
for a radioactive Earth.
In response to the March 2011 Japanese nuclear
catastrophe, President Angela Merkel of Germany took seven power plants
off-line and proposed the following six-point plan (Spiegel Online International
4/15/2011) from which other countries might take inspiration:
• Expanding renewable energy. Investing in more
wind, solar, and biomass energies will try to raise the renewable-energy
share of Germany's total energy use -- from a baseline of 17 percent in
• Expanding grids and storage. Building a much
larger storage and delivery network for electricity -- particularly wind
energy, which can be generated in the north but must be carried to the
south -- will be a main focus.
• Efficiency. The government hopes to improve the
heating efficiency of German buildings -- and reduce consumption -- by
20 percent over the next decade.
• "Flexible power." The government wants to build
more "flexible" power plants that can pick up slack from wind or solar
energy when the weather fails to generate enough electricity during peak
demand. The obvious source of "flexible power" for now, besides nuclear
energy, is natural gas.
• Research and development. The government will
increase government support for research into better energy storage and
more efficient grids to a total of €500 million between now and 2020.
• Citizen involvement. The government wants to
involve its sometimes-recalcitrant citizenry due to ongoing resistance
against wind generators and the installation of an efficient new power
line grid in some regions.
“Not much time remains before the chance to avert the
threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity are
immeasurably diminished. We, the undersigned senior members of the
world's scientific community, hereby warn all of humanity of what lies
ahead. A great change in the stewardship of the earth is required.”
“For questions such as preservation
of a liveable environment and a liveable world, it is truly discouraging
that the public must plead for an opportunity to be represented in decision-making.
No right is closer to the constitutional guarantees than that of a liveable
|Warning to Humanity
issued by the
Union of Concerned Scientists
signed by 1500 scientists
from 69 nations
“There is no safe amount of radiation.
Even small amounts do harm.”
|John W. Gofman MD, PhD
In nuclear-physical chemistry
Associate Director of Lawrence
Radiation Laboratory 1963-1969
Researcher in radiation hazards
Author of Poisoned Power and
“All that is necessary for the
triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
“In our every deliberation, we
must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
|Linus Pauling PhD
|The Great Law of the
A list of nuclear plants in the USA with their locations
and details such as the amount of high-level radioactive waste on-site,
problems and leaks, and “worst case” projections of casualties and property
A list of 200 nuclear related books and videos:
A national information center about nuclear power and
sustainable energy issues:
A map of the USA depicting radiation levels updated frequently:
About the catastrophe in Japan:
About Health Effects of Low Level Radiation: