Fallout Around the Breakfast Table

[Gawan]

As I read the article written by Laura I remembered also some questions, better I wondered about the consequences of the atomic-bombs that have been used, as I watched the video about over month ago...

The question was, what is happening to the people who are living next to these testing sides? And how far and how long does it take its toll of these insane testings?!

As far as I understood the article it is "just" another part of poisoning people over a long time.

Well, thanks for that article Laura there is really much to ponder about and my condolences as well.

 

[thevenusian]

There is quite a bit of material available about the health effects of nuclear fallout near testing sites. Those afflicted with associated cancers have the nickname 'downwinders'. Most of the research I've seen is in the US, which isn't surprising, since on that video most of the nuclear explosions were going off in the US southwest.

Here is a sample article: _http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/21/cold-war-remnant-cancer-for-baby-boomers/

This site has a wealth of info and links on related subjects: _http://www.nonukes.org/

 

[Skyfarmr]

Thanks for sharing the experience your neighbors went through; serious food for thought about the cause of her death, as well. Condolences to "Fransesca's family and friends.

The article brought to mind what Dr. Helen Caldicott said in an interview with Amy Goodman (democracynow.org) last week.
Dr. Caldicott is a world-renowned anti-nuclear advocate, author and pediatrician, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and has spent decades warning of the medical hazards of nuclear technologies.

For brevity's sake I'm cutting and pasting these comments:

"A new report from the New York Academy of Sciences has just translated 5,000 papers from Russian into English. It’s the most devastating report I’ve ever seen. Up to a million people have already died from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for virtually the rest of time. What we should know is that a millionth of a gram of plutonium, or less, can induce cancer, or will induce cancer. Each reactor has 250 kilos, or 500 pounds, of plutonium in it. You know, there’s enough plutonium in these reactors to kill everyone on earth....

"I was commissioned to write an article for the New England Journal of Medicine about the dangers of nuclear power. I spent a year researching it. You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative,... that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days.

"Nuclear power,... creates massive quantities of radioactive waste. There is no way to put it on earth that’s safe. As it leaks into the water over time, it will bioconcentrate in the food chains, in the breast milk, in the fetuses, that are thousands of times more radiosensitive than adults. One x-ray to the pregnant abdomen doubles the incidence of leukemia in the child. And over time, nuclear waste will [HAS?]induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia and genetic disease, and random compulsory genetic engineering. And we’re not the only species with genes, of course. It’s plants and animals. So, this is an absolute catastrophe, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

[This interview is somewhat of a debate between the Dr. and George Monbiot, British journalist, author, columnist with The Guardian of London who is more the "expert" on the information that's out there, but seems to have no clue on whether that information is valid or has scientific value.... comes across to me as a talking/arguing head to raise doubt and prop up the propaganda,IMHO]

"The New York Academy of Sciences, this report on Chernobyl is absolutely devastating. But there are now 2,600 genetic diseases described. I first learned about radiation by learning about the experiments with Drosophila fruit fly by Muller when I did first-year medicine in '56. You can produce a gene for a crooked wing that's passed on generation to generation. We will not live to see the abnormalities created by radiation from our activities now because, you know, we’ll all be dead by the time we have 20 or more generations. But it’s imperative that people understand that internal emitters cause cancer, but the incubation time for cancer is any time from two to 60 years.

"George, the International Atomic Energy Agency has an unholy alliance with the WHO, World Health Organization, which says WHO cannot examine any accident related to nuclear power, etc., without the permission of the IAEA. And indeed, it didn’t examine Chernobyl. Forty percent of the European land mass is still radioactive, George. Turkish food is extremely radioactive. And we have to wait to see the cancers arising and do epidemiological studies, many of which have been done to exposed populations. George, there is no debate about this. There is no debate. I speak to doctors all the time in medical schools, in hospitals, grand rounds. We all understand this. There is no debate in the medical community.

Just to include a bit of George Monbiot's counter-irritant replies I'll include the following. You'll understand why I left him out of the above repoire between him and Dr. Caldicott.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me—let me ask George Monbiot—the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl is three weeks away. Scientists have documented extreme levels of radiation still there, miles and miles of dead trees, mutated birds, insects, leukemia deaths of children. Is this your understanding?

GEORGE MONBIOT: Oh, miles and miles of dead trees, I don’t believe that there’s—that’s an effect of Chernobyl. [ :O]It might well be an effect of acid rain in the area, [ ] but I haven’t seen any scientific evidence suggesting miles and miles of dead trees caused by the Chernobyl erosion, or of widespread impacts amongst wildlife.[that's because he didn't read all of the report... if any]

Now, as for the leukemia incidence, yes, unquestion-–well, thyroid cancer, actually, was the big one amongst children. There was some elevated incidence of leukemia amongst particularly a few of the workers at Chernobyl, but the broader impact was of thyroid cancer. And that could have been massively reduced, that incidence, A, by giving iodine pills to children, and B, by forbidding them, for a period of time, from drinking the contaminated milk. Because the authorities were so appallingly lax and didn’t do any of the—either of those basic precautions, we see a much higher rate of thyroid cancer amongst children than there ever should have been.[and that couldn't happen in the US cause we're so on top of it... or could it?]

Now, on these questions that Helen raises, I mean, if she’s honestly saying that the World Health Organization is now part of the conspiracy and the cover-up, as well, then the mind boggles.

HELEN CALDICOTT: Yeah, I am.

GEORGE MONBIOT: You know, where does this end?

HELEN CALDICOTT: The mind does boggle.

GEORGE MONBIOT: If them and the U.N. Scientific Committee and the IAEA and—I mean, who else is involved in this conspiracy? We need to know.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Helen Caldicott?

HELEN CALDICOTT: Well, yes, we do. It’s the IAEA which promotes nuclear power—sorry, Amy. It’s the IAEA that promotes nuclear power, right, but says you mustn’t build bombs from your reactor. And that negotiation took place, God, several decades, quite a lot of decades, ago. And the WHO just does nothing—

The rest of the interview/debate gets a bit nasty and just goes to show that we really have to look out for ourselves since the truth of this matter is being buried and propagandized, and has been for a long, long time.

From the SOTT article:

In short, while I think that what is happening as a result of the Japan nuclear reactor disaster is a lot worse that the authorities are saying, I don't think that is any reason to get hysterical right now. The time for hysteria was long ago. You are already poisoned and don't know it.

I find it very humbling to resign to this conclusion.

 

[mamadrama]

Because the authorities were so appallingly lax and didn’t do any of the—either of those basic precautions, we see a much higher rate of thyroid cancer amongst children than there ever should have been.[and that couldn't happen in the US cause we're so on top of it... or could it?]

Well deserved sarcasm. Not only could a nuclear accident happen here, we are very ill prepared if one does.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/226915-U-S-Health-Care-System-Unprepared-for-Major-Nuclear-Emergency-Officials-Say

 

[RyanX]

Thank you for sharing your story, Laura. My condolences to you, the rest of the crew there and your neighbors as well.

I think somebody posted something along these lines under the SOTT comments too, but while reading the story about your neighbor, I couldn't help to think of my Mom. She's drank diet-soda for as long as I can remember, always tried to eat low-fat, low-salt foods, used margarine when cooking, exercises regularly, doesn't drink or smoke, etc. Yes, I've come a long way from how I was raised! (except on the drinking part)

Last month she developed a strange problem with her eyes and had to go into the ER. I'm still not sure if she's fully recovered. According to my Dad, she's had memory problems as well, but I've never noticed it, personally. My Dad, on the other hand, has started to make some positive changes. He's convinced my Mom to convert to butter instead of margarine for meals. He replaced all their teflon cookware with stainless steel and cast iron. But they both have a long way to go. They're still quite skeptical about giving up gluten and dairy.

I'm just afraid there will come a point where it will be too late and my Mom will deteriorate rapidly just like your neighbor. I've tried to convey to my Mom and Dad what I've learned about health and diet and why I do certain things, but they are still pretty slow on the uptake. It still worries me though. :(

 

[sitting]

Below is a link to a recent interview with Dr. Caldicott. Her message is the most alarming one I've heard so far. With her extensive background in medicine, I listened very carefully.


http://itsrainmakingtime.com/2011/helencaldicott/

 

[sitting]

One more thing...in the above interview, Dr. Caldicott had pointed comments about the nuclear industry in France (at 17:42 minutes).

She also made a spicy remark about the French. : )