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Some of you might be interested in this....

Kathy

Well-known member
ECRR European Committee on Radiation Risk
PRESS RELEASE - 11TH APRIL 2006

New Book reveals True Consequences of Chernobyl accident and shows that Millions will die of Cancer and other Illnesses.

The European Committee on Radiation Risk today published a new book on the objectively measured health effects of the Chernobyl accident.

ECRR2006-Chernobyl, 20 Years On is a review of the health consequences by eminent research scientists from several European countries and has been two years in the making. The book presents the results of translations and evaluations of the Russian language peer-review literature on the issue. The existence of this new book formed one basis of the Guardian article of Saturday March 25th 2006, “UN accused of ignoring 500,000 Chernobyl deaths.”

Dr Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary of the ECRR and co-editor of the new book with Prof Alexey Yablokov of the Russian Academy of Sciences remarks:

‘The health consequences of the Chernobyl accident have been the subject of considerable controversy and this continues even after 20 years of apparent study of the phenomena. As the book shows, the cover-up of the true situation began with the Soviet authorities who refused to permit radiation-associated illnesses to be registered. It continued with the totally reprehensible lack of investigation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) whose 1959 agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has constrained them into a bizarre inability to examine the true consequences of the radiation. This remarkable book presents reviews of over 700 Russian language reports of studies and shows the real meltdown of health both in the main affected areas and in wider Europe. The 2001 call by the European Parliament for a re-assessment of the radiation risk model in regard to the Chernobyl accident exposures has been answered by the European Committee. This book is the result.”

The conclusions given in this new book are that the health effects of the accident have been catastrophic. In addition, the newly discovered phenomenon of radiation induced ‘genomic instability’ is seen in its effects in the increases in incidence of a wide range of illnesses in the exposed populations, in adults and children but also in animals and in plants, giving the lie to the idea that these effects are due to social changes or ‘radiophobia’. The cancer death yield alone of the exposures is shown to be numbered in millions, but many will die of other illnesses including radiation induced ageing which is seen in children and is correlated with their measured radioisotope content.

ECRR2006-Chernobyl, 20 Years On; ISBN 1-897761-25-2 is published by Green Audit for the ECRR. For an account of the contents see attached .pdf file, also available on www.euradcom.org;

CONTACT: Dr Chris Busby +44 (0)1970-630215; +44 (0)7989428833 or email [email protected]

Note to Editors: Dr Busby, ECRR secretary, is a fellow of the University of Liverpool, a member of the recent UK DEFRA and DoH Committee Examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters (CERRIE), a member of the UK MoD Depleted Uranium Oversight Board and Science Policy Workpackage Leader for the (EU) Policy Information Network for Child Health and Environment (PINCHE) based in The Netherlands.
 

Kathy

Well-known member
This American Free Press article from January 7, 2004 is a good example of what I am speaking of when I describe how radio-active nanoparticles are causing oxidative stress in the brain. When will we examine the brains of BSE cattle for such nanoparticles?


Explaining How Depleted Uranium Is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land

Nano-particles pinpointed

By Christopher Bollyn

Depleted uranium weapons, and the untold misery they wreak on mankind, are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. This exclusive report should break the media embargo imposed on the American people.

Despite being a grossly under-reported subject in the mainstream, there is intense public interest in depleted uranium (DU) and the damage it inflicts on humankind and the environment.

While American Free Press is actively investigating DU weapons and how they contribute to Gulf War Syndrome, the corporate-controlled press ignores the illegal use of DU and its long-lasting effects on the health of veterans and the public.

In August 2004 American Free Press published a ground-breaking four-part series on DU weapons and the long-term health risks they pose to soldiers and civilians alike. Information provided to AFP by experts and scientists, some of it published for the first time in this paper, has increased public awareness of how exposure to small particles of DU can severely affect human health.

Leuren Moret, a Berkeley-based geo-scientist with expertise in atmospheric dust, corresponds with AFP on DU issues. Recently Moret provided a copy of her letters to a British radiation biologist, Dr. Chris Busby, about how nanometer size particles—less than one-tenth of a micron and smaller—of DU once inhaled or absorbed into the body, can cause long-term damage to one’s health.

Busby is one of the founders of Green Audit, a British organization that monitors companies “whose activities might threaten the environment and health of citizens.”

Moret’s writings were meant to assist Busby in a legal case being heard in the High Court in London where a former defense worker, Richard David, 49, is suing Normal Air Garrett, Ltd., an aircraft parts company now owned by Honeywell Aerospace, claiming exposure to DU on the job has made his life a “living hell.”

David worked as a component fitter on fighter planes and bombers but had to quit due to health problems. He says he developed a cough within weeks of starting work.

Today, David suffers from a variety of symptoms like those known as Gulf War Syndrome, including respiratory and kidney problems, bowel conditions and painful joints. Medical tests reveal mutations to his DNA and damage to his chromosomes, which, he says, could only have been caused by ionizing radiation. He has also been diagnosed with a terminal lung condition.

Honeywell denies DU was ever used at the plant in Yeovil, Somerset, where David worked for 10 years until 1995. David claims that DU’s existence at the plant was denied because it is an official secret.

David has asked the High Court for more time to gather evidence. The hearing is due to resume in April. “I don’t have any legal representation,” David said, “so I am representing myself. It is a real David versus Goliath case.

“I am confident I will win. I hope to set a precedent for other cases of people who have suffered from the effects of depleted uranium,” he said.

Moret’s letters on the particle effect of DU is based on research done by Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist and former scientist with the Manhattan Project and the National Laboratory at Livermore, Calif. Fulk, who has developed a “particle theory” about how DU nano-particles affect human DNA, donates his time and expertise to help bring information about DU to the public.

Asked about Fulk’s particle theory, Busby said it is “quite sound.”

“DU is much more dangerous than they say,” Busby added. “I’ve always said that it contributes significantly to Gulf War Syndrome.”

When Moret’s correspondence to Dr. Busby was posted on the Internet over the New Year’s holiday under the title “How Depleted Uranium Weapons Are Killing Our Troops,” some 6,000 people read the letter in the first two days. The following Monday, a producer from BBC’s Panorama program contacted Moret to arrange an interview.

If the BBC follows up with an investigation on the health effects of DU, it may be hard for the U.S. media to maintain their cover-up. More than 500,000 “Gulf War Era” vets currently receive disability compensation, many of them for a variety of symptoms generally referred to as Gulf War Syndrome. Experts blame DU for many of these symptoms.

“The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse,” Robert C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services wrote in an article about DU weapons entitled “Silent Genocide.”

“DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe it or touch it; the substance also alters one’s genetic code,” Koehler wrote. “The Pentagon’s response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator.”

U.S. GOVERNMENT KNOWS

The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984 Department of Energy conference on nuclear airborne waste reported that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent, Fulk told AFP.

DU is harmful in three ways, according to Fulk: “Chemical toxicity, radiological toxicity and particle toxicity.”

Particles in the nano-meter (one billionth of a meter) range are a “new breed of cat,” Moret wrote. Because the size of the nano-particles allows them to pass freely throughout the organism and into the nucleus of its cells, exposure to nano-particles causes different symptoms than exposure to larger particles of the same substance.

Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as “a non-specific catalyst” in both “nuclear and non-nuclear” ways. This means that the uranium particle can affect human DNA and RNA because of both its chemical and radiological properties. This is why internalized DU particles cause “many, many diseases,” Fulk said.

Asked if this is how DU causes severe birth defects, Fulk said, “Yes.”

MILITARY AWARE

The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone, Moret wrote.

Dr. Miller requested that questions be sent in writing and copied to a military spokesman. She did tell AFP that it should be noted that her studies showing that DU is “neoplastically transforming and genotoxic” are based on in vitro cellular research.

Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size.

For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.

“Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,” Moret wrote. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.

When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.

“Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and nerves, can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Hodgkin’s disease.”


Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Japan to begin operation of world's most expensive nuclear facility
© Greenpeace/Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

Tokyo, Japan, March 30 2006

Greenpeace today warned of a new era in nuclear proliferation in Asia as the Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture begins operating on Friday this week. As well as leading to large-scale contamination of the environment and long term human health consequences, for the first time in its history, Japan will be free to acquire vast quantities of plutonium and capable of being used in nuclear weapons. ( 1 )

The Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant, which will separate plutonium from nuclear waste spent fuel belonging to nuclear electric companies, received final approval from the Governor of the Aomori Prefecture on March 29th. The cost of construction has ballooned to around USD 21 billion, while estimated costs for full operation over the next decades has been estimated at over USD 100 billion.

"The start of the Rokkasho operations is a disaster for nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Japan has no peaceful use for its plutonium, yet it already owns 45 tons. The approval by the Governor of Aomori has condemned the people he represents in northern Japan to radioactive contamination and the risk of catastrophic accident. But the threat from this facility is of global significance - it has taken North-east Asia closer to a nuclear arms race," said Atsuko Nogawa of Greenpeace Japan.

The plant, more than twenty years in the planning, was built in conjunction with the French nuclear company Areva, and is owned by Japanese nuclear electric utilities. Japanese Government policy dictated to the utilities is for full reprocessing of all spent fuel discharged from nuclear reactors. Rokkasho is planned to reprocess up to 800 tons of spent fuel each year of operation. This would yield 7-8 tons of plutonium. Around 5 kilograms would be sufficient for one nuclear weapon. Estimates suggest Japan may possess as much as 100 tons of plutonium by 2020. ( 2 )

Plans by Japanese utilities to use plutonium fuel (MOX) collapsed during the late 1990s and are now due to begin in the period 2008-2010. Despite recent approvals to use plutonium by smaller utilities (Chubu and Kyushu), Japans largest electric companies, Tokyo Electric and Kansai Electric remain blocked from using plutonium MOX fuel due to public and political opposition following scandals and accidents. While Japans plans to use plutonium have collapsed it has continued to acquire more and more plutonium through reprocessing contracts with UK and French facilities. ( 3 )

© Greenpeace/Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert


In addition to the proliferation threat, there are major environmental and human health threats from reprocessing. The Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant will discharge every day millions of litres of nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean and millions of cubic meters of radioactive gases into the atmosphere. Whereas today the environment around Rokkasho is relatively free of radioactive contamination, within hours of starting the operations radionuclides such as Carbon-14, Strontium and Caesium will be contaminating all life forms around the plant.

A Greenpeace commissioned study has calculated that global radiation doses to humans from Rokkasho releases are likely to be similar in magnitude to the collective dose from the Chernobyl disaster whose 20th anniversary will occur in April 2006. ( 4 )

"Reprocessing is a daily nuclear accident due to the massive discharges of nuclear waste authorized by government agencies which have no regard for public health or the wider environment. For decades the people of Aomori, around Japan and overseas have warned against the dangers from this facility," said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International. "It is billions of dollars over budget and already suffering radioactive leaks, and is almost certain to suffer further safety and technical problems if not accidents. Every new nuclear project in Japan in recent years has ended in failure, and Rokkasho is likely to be no different but at a terrible cost."

For further information, please contact:
Atsuko Nogawa
(tel 03-5338-9800)
Shaun Burnie

Link: http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/press/releases_en/pr20060330_html

While much of the concerns are based on estimates, this articles does state that this enrichment facility has already suffered radio-active leaks.
 

flounder

Well-known member
some might be interested in this as well ;


Houston Chronicle, 4/24/06


CHERNOBYL NATURE PARK

Forests and fields around Ukraine's damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant are teeming with wildlife 20 years after an explosion at the facility soaked the area with intense radiation. Scientists say there have been some mutations due to the radioactivity. " But the mutants never resembled the monsters described in the media (or by you kathy;-) and all died quickly," said Sergei Gashak, a Chernobyl lab ornithologist. Rudolph Alexakhin, director of the Agriculture Radiology Institute in Moscow, said that during the first yearlong phase after the explosion of April 26, 1986, plants and animals most affected by the radiation died. Over the next six years, Alexakhin says, nature slowly "licked it's wounds," leading to the strong comeback in wildlife. ...end


chron.com/


KATHY, your nonsense of op's and metals and today, nuclear radiation, as a cause of BSE/TSE is pure nonsense, not an ounce of science, fact, or truth in what you say, nothing but fiction. all one has to do is look at the old and new transmission studies of TSEs. nothing nuclear about them, all ruminant and animal protein, with some potential vertical and horizontal transmission. ...

TSS
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Late Chernobyl fireman's blood tests to be disclosed

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) The Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima will soon release the test results of blood samples taken from the chief firefighter in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The test, conducted 3 1/2 years after the accident, showed Leonid Telyatnikov was developing chromosomal abnormalities in 40 percent of his lymphocytes, a result never made public before.

Akio Awa, 72, who was then chief of the Department of Genetics at the foundation, analyzed the samples. He decided to publish the data after learning about Telyatnikov's death in 2004.

The data will soon be published in an academic paper on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

Telyatnikov asked for a blood test after he heard of the foundation, which conducts health studies on atomic bomb survivors, when he was visiting Hiroshima in October 1989 to give a talk.

At the talk, Telyatnikov described his ordeal in the 20 days after the accident, including losing his hair and developing red spots in his hands.

An analysis of 200 lymphocytes showed chromosome abnormalities in about 40 percent of the cells, including translocation, a condition in which a fragment of one chromosome breaks off and attaches to another.

Awa said he believes Telyatnikov had absorbed 4 grays of radiation, equivalent to the amount one would absorb at 900 meters to 1 km away from the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. This level of radiation normally kills about half of the exposed people within 60 days.

Telyatnikov died of cancer in December 2004 at age 53.

Awa wrote a letter to his widow, Larisa, 58, attached a microscopic photograph of chromosomes, and had them delivered to her through a Kyodo reporter. Larisa, who lives in Kiev, in turn wrote a thank-you note on the back of a photograph of her husband.

Awa, who is examining the data before submitting the paper to a science journal, voiced relief that he was able to contact Telyatnikov's kin.

"I want to write this paper as the last big project in my life," he said.

The foundation's physician, Kazuo Neriishi, took Telyatnikov's blood samples. He recalled Telyatnikov as well-built and very firefighterlike, and remembered seeing his thick arm as he drew blood.

Telyatnikov asked Neriishi what things he should be careful about in everyday life. Neriishi told him people exposed to radiation can develop the same diseases as those who weren't, but noted he had a higher risk of developing cancer. Neriishi gave him green tea because it is believed to have cancer-fighting properties.

"This experience led me to realize how important it was to call on the survivors of the atomic bomb to avoid tobacco and other cancer-causing products, and to be careful about their diet," Neriishi said.

The Chernobyl disaster began April 26, 1986, in a civilian nuclear power station in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The plant's No. 4 reactor exploded during a test run, releasing massive amounts of radioactive materials into the atmosphere.

The Chernobyl Forum, a group comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency and others, said about 4,000 people have died, but the number of casualties remains unknown, with some saying several hundred thousand.

The Japan Times: Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Note: In your quote, the Russians stated nearly all of the originally affected (contaminated) animals DIED. This is the result of their acute exposure. Where did all the animals now residing there come from? They migrated there, I suppose, from surrounding areas less affected. The damaging effects of the radiation now take on a chronic role. The results will show up. Chromosonal damage will show up in these animals, just as it did in the people.
 

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