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20 Radioactive Dangers We All Face |
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Fallout, Swine Flu, And A Pandemic Of Awareness
By
Andrew Kishner
11 May, 2009
Countercurrents.org
If you haven't thought of the possibility that epidemic influenzas such as 'swine flu,' or 'H1N1 virus,' may come about as a result of low-level radiation in the form of fallout that covers the Earth, neither did I. That was until last week when someone proposed the idea to me.
It all sounds like something out of a science fiction novel: 'a catastrophic nuclear war in 2030 covers the Earth with toxic radioactive fallout that gives rise to mutant viruses which infect and destroy surviving clusters of humans...' But, back in the 1950s, the so-called ‘father of the [Soviet] hydrogen bomb’ predicted that the radioactive fallout from the ‘Cold War’ could accelerate the rise of mutant pathogens, including influenzas.
Andrei Sakharov, the atomic scientist-turned-critic, wrote in his book 'Memoirs' (published last decade) that in the late 1950s he suggested 'that a global increase in mutations of bacteria and viruses...might have been an important factor in the spread of such diseases as diphtheria in the nineteenth century, or the influenza epidemic, and that low-level radiation might further increase the rate of mutations.’ Read more
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Epilogue: One of the causes of virus and bacteria mutations prior to the Cold War (and as far back as the beginning of life), as alluded to by Sakharov, may have been high-energy radiation from the sun. This is a form of 'cosmic radiation.' In the late 20th century, the journal Nature published two 'letters to the editor' (1978, 1990) from scientists who pointed to a possible causal link - or 'coincidence' - between peaks in the sunspot cycles, when solar activity is at a maximum, over several decades in the 20th century, and the onset of influenza pandemics (usually within 12 months), particularly major subtypes of the influenza A virus. The 'hypothesis' is that the solar radiation triggers changes in virus genes - 'antigenic shifts in the virus' - and the virus easily spreads due to (also radiation-induced) global immunity weakness. The author who presented the hypothesis, an epidemiologist, however, noted in 1978 that: 'Fascinating as it is to attempt to investigate the association throughout the centuries of sunspot records, influenza records are probably too dubious to make the attempt worthwhile.' (Nature 275:86). (Currently, we are in a low sunspot year, so their hypothesis doesn't apply to the growing swine flu epidemic. What's your theory?)
Generally, cosmic radiation accounts for about 45 milliRem per year of human exposure to all ionizing radiation - it increases with altitude (i.e., Colorado's cosmic radiation annual dose is about 130 milliRem) - but that figure can grow by a few percentage points with increased sunspot activity and grow several-fold (for several hours) following powerful solar flare events. For the vast, vast majority of the past billion or so years, the average radiation levels on Earth have fluctuated little and perhaps radiation increases attributed to flunctations of solar activity was just enough to give rise to new mutations ('healthy' mutations for the evolution of life) but not too much (radiation) so as to destroy the genes of some or all of the 'fittest' species. But the introduction of man-made sources of radioactivity has altered the situation. Although fallout from global nuclear testing has added only a few percent points to overall background radiation (in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres), isolated 'hot spots' of fallout - resulting from accidents or emissions of nuclear power plants or weapons production facilities or 'near-site' dry-deposition or 'rain outs' from nuclear testing fallout - containing dangerously high radioactive soil levels may give rise to increased mutations of living organisms, included viruses. Similarly, since many long-lived particles in fallout are chemically similar to minerals that our bodies need, such as Strontium-90 which mimics Calcium, those toxic isotopes can accumulate in animal (and human) organs, tissues or bones at very high concentrations, giving rise to increased likelihood of damage to cell structures and genetic material to hosts and pathogens alike.
More analysis: The Millstone Unit 1 nuclear reactor radioactive 'banner year' of 1975
Idealist's public document archives: 1. 
2.
'The
greatest irony of our atmospheric nuclear testing program is that
the only
victims of U.S. nuclear arms since World War II have been our own people.'
- Forgotten
Guinea Pigs Report, 1980
In 1986, the U.S. Dept. of Energy used the cover of the Chernobyl fallout cloud over the United States to release huge amounts of radiation into the air from a failed underground Nevada nuclear test. It was called Mighty Oak.
learn more on our global fallout page
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