An American Tragedy
An American Tragedy
Augusta GazetteFri May 08, 2009,Approximately 225,000 American servicemen participated in atmospheric nuclear tests conducted between 1945 and 1962 in the U.S. and over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
These Americans were placed in very hazardous, extremely dangerous areas and were constantly exposed to the unknown factors of radiation in the performance of their duties. They were assigned to these duties with no formal training, knowledge of the hazards and with very little or no safety gear.
They were America’s atomic guinea pigs and kept away from the public.
And still today the U.S. government remains reluctant to acknowledge the health problems created by the atomic testing, which left the servicemen with hidden wounds — not from bullets or shrapnel, but from radiation.
“Thousands of veterans have died while they begged for medical help. The government has never admitted that subjecting them to atomic radiation causes all different kinds of cancer,” said Gary Thornton of Leon, who has been working hard to bring honor and remembrance to our nation’s forgotten veterans…………………..
They were also instructed to sign a document stating that whatever they “witnessed, saw, or heard would not be revealed for 20 years under the penalty of execution and/or life imprisonment.” This was called the Atomic Secrets Act and no entries were made in the service jackets, medical records or orders of these soldiers.
Because of the sworn secrecy, it’s as if the testing never happened.
Thornton has been telling anyone who will listen that most of the Atomic veterans have experienced severe health problems, as well as their children and grandchildren.
Iraq’s Wrecked Environment
Half Life of a Toxic War Iraq’s Wrecked Environment ounterpunch May 1 By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR and JOSHUA FRANK – “………………….
Months of bombing during the first Gulf War by the United States and Great Britain left a deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the United States hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.
Depleted uranium (DU) is a rather benign sounding name for uranium-238, the trace element left behind when fissionable material is extracted from uranium-235 for nuclear reactors and weapons. For decades, this waste was a nuisance; by the late 1980s there were nearly a billion tons of the radioactive material piled at plutonium processing plants across the country. Then Pentagon weapons designers discovered a use for the tailings: they could be molded into bullets and bombs. Uranium is denser than lead, making it perfect for armor penetrating weapons designed to destroy tanks, armored personnel carriers and bunkers. When tank-busting bombs explode, depleted uranium oxidizes into microscopic fragments that float through the air, carried on the desert winds for decades. Inhaled, the lethal bits of carcinogenic dust stick to the lungs, eventually wreaking havoc in the form of tumors, hemorrhages, ravaged immune systems, and leukemia.
More than 15 years later, the dire health consequences of our first radioactive bombing campaign in this region are coming into focus. Since 1990, the incidence rate of leukemia in Iraq has increased over 600 percent.
Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank: Iraq’s Wrecked Environment
Ukraine Honors the Memory of the Victims of Chernobyl
Ukraine Honors the Memory of the Victims of Chernobyl
Epoch Times By Ekaterina Popova 29 April 09 23 years after the incident with the nuclear plant, the concrete slabs which buried 25 000 Ukrainians are crannied and radiation again threatens lives –
“………………On April 27, 1986, workers in Sweden in the nuclear plant Forsmark—about 680 miles from Chernobyl—were found to have radioactive particles on their clothes. Swedish authorities began investigating the case and established that there was no leakage or emissions from their reactor. Then it became clear that there was a serious problem in the western part of the Soviet Union. At that time, Finland had reported an increase in the level of radiation in the atmosphere.
Soviet authorities and the leaders of most countries in Eastern Europe continued to hide the truth from the public until the situation became out of control………….
……….According to scientific research, Belarus has absorbed 60 percent of the pollution. The radioactive cloud reached Bulgaria on May 1, coinciding with the celebration of Labor Day, with thousands of people out in the open.
Twenty-five thousand Ukrainians, known as “liquidators,” died in the early days while trying to keep the situation under control, trying to construct a concrete slab over the remains of the reactor.
In Ukraine alone, 2.3 million people are officially registered as victims of the tragedy. Immediately after the incident over 4,000 Ukrainians—children and adults—were operated on for cancer of the thyroid gland, the most common consequence of radiation exposure.
The nuclear plant was finally closed in 2000. Until then one of the reactors continued to produce electricity.
The facility continues to be dangerous, as the concrete cover, which was laid over 200 tons of radioactive fuel, has started to crack. To prevent further problems, a steel sarcophagus is planned to be built, which will cover the concrete.
Epoch Times – Ukraine Honors the Memory of the Victims of Chernobyl
Study examines radiation dose estimates for pregnant women undergoing therapeutic ERCP
Study examines radiation dose estimates for pregnant women undergoing therapeutic ERCP
Eureka Alert Anne Brownsey 29 April 09 – ” …………………. – Pregnant women with gallstone disease may require immediate endoscopic intervention because of potentially life-threatening cholangitis (infection in the bile ducts) or gallstone pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).
The radiation exposure in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which is used to treat these conditions, is a concern because fetal tissues are more susceptible to radiation injury.
Researchers from Greece found that the radiation risks associated with ERCP procedures are not trivial and that accurate fetal dose estimation is now available regardless of patient body size, operating parameters, equipment used and gestational stage.
The study appears in the April issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
Study examines radiation dose estimates for pregnant women undergoing therapeutic ERCP
The period of “Chernobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/
The period of “Chernobyl’s decay”U kraine will be exposed to residual radiation for hundreds of years. What can be done today? day.kiev.ua By Oleksandra SHEPEL 28 April 09
Twenty-three years have passed since The Day of April 26 divided human fates into “before” and “after” the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Until this day it is the world’s worst anthropogenic catastrophe unmatched for its environmental impact.
For Ukraine Chornobyl is an everyday reality and a host of global-scale problems. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the catastrophe are as acute today as they were 23 years ago. Can one get used to devastated villages and abandoned fertile land?………………………..
Radioisotopes of iodine, which were present in the air in the largest quantities, were the most dangerous for people. Therefore, Ukrainians who were outside under the radioactive clouds in the last days of April and early May picked up plenty of this isotope. Their thyroid glands accumulating this substance, received the largest dose of irradiation of all the parts of body, and suffered worst. As a result, several years after the Chornobyl disaster, doctors registered a spike in thyroid cancer among children.
Some experts assert that the life of radioactive iodine is short, so it cannot be affecting our health today. In fact, radioactive iodine does not disappear within eight days, as some write, but plants itself in the thyroid of its victims and stays there for 80 days.
Back in 1978 the children’s doctor Helen Caldicott warned humanity that the silence of doctors about the consequences of nuclear technologies and radiation would lead to an increase in cancer and hereditary diseases. In 1982 Ukraine published data of foreign authors proving the dangerous influence of radiation on the health of pregnant women and children, specifically mentioning children with inborn defects born of irradiated parents.
Before the Chornobyl catastrophe, in 1985, academician Valeri Legasov argued that the residual radioactivity after nuclear plant explosions increases with time because of accumulation of long-lived radionuclides. Alice Stuart, an expert on the effects of low levels of radiation, studied the state of health of the employees of the Hanford military plant, and victims of nuclear bombing in Japanese cities, and proved that small doses of radiation over a longer period of time are more of a carcinogenic threat than a one-time equivalent.
Are the restless experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aware of this?………………………………….plutonium-241 will “leave the arena” in a century — it will be replaced by more mobile “long-lived” americium-241. Experts are afraid that this isotope, able to percolate into the ground, will contaminate the subsoil waters and will spread from the worst contaminated zone to clean territories over several thousands of years.
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family – Times Online
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family THE TIMES April 27 2009 The Government is to hold an inquiry that may finally lead to compensation for British servicemen exposed to radiation during nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s. ……………………………………………………
Within a few years many of the men had developed cancers and the rate of miscarriages among their partners grew to alarming levels. Evidence is now growing of damage having been caused to their DNA, damage which may have resulted in gene mutations that caused illnesses and congenital deformities among their children.
In research conducted by the independent environmental consultants Green Audit in 2007, the rate of congenital deformities among nuclear test veterans’ children was almost ten times higher than that of an average control group. Among veterans’ partners, the rate of miscarriage was three times the average……………………
“These men have been treated extremely shabbily,” says Gibson. “Successive governments have been dodging their responsibilities while families have been suffering. The MoD’s denial of a link between nuclear tests and ill health looks increasingly shaky now that children and grandchildren of veterans are experiencing congenital disease and early death.” Gibson and Baron’s efforts led to last week’s announcement of Government-backed research.
Only a small number of people have seen the mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion close up. Most of them are dead. Those who survive endure not only their own awful ailments but must, in many cases, wince and weep while their children and now grandchildren suffer before their eyes.
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family – Times Online
Chernobyl fallout continues | The Courier-Mail
Chernobyl fallout continues
April 26, 2009 12:00am
THE charity flights arrive at London’s Gatwick Airport twice a week. On board are sick, disadvantaged or dying children from areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
More than two decades after the world’s worst nuclear accident, thousands of youngsters are still being brought to the UK each year.
Born up to 15 years after the event, they spend a month recuperating with volunteer families from the Chernobyl Children Life Line………………
………….for charity founder Victor Mizzi, who personally greets almost every flight, there is no question that Chernobyl is an ongoing tragedy.
“The situation is just as bad now with cancer and leukemia as it was in 1986,” claims Mizzi, who has brought more than 46,000 children from affected areas to Britain…………………………
More than 340,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area over the following years, never to return to their contaminated homes.
Today, the area around Chernobyl remains a wasteland, with habitation banned in a 30km “zone of alienation”.
In the abandoned city of Prypiat, once bustling with a population of 50,000, decaying shells of buildings are all that is left…………
………….Greenpeace, for one, has estimated more than 90,000 people will die from cancer and that other illnesses will send the toll soaring into the hundreds of thousands.
85,000 radioactive baby teeth
85,000 radioactive baby teeth. Now that we have your attention…
Forgotten about for 50 years, an odd stash yields clues about above-ground nuclear tests and cancertHE sTAR.COM Apr 26, 2009 “…………………The fallout came from hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests in America and other parts of the world. The radioactive isotope Strontium-90, one of the by-products of the bombs, spread into the atmosphere, fell onto the land, was ingested by dairy cows and passed into the milk supply. Strontium-90, like calcium, was concentrated in children’s teeth in detectable amounts.
In 1958 scientists in St. Louis began a campaign to collect baby teeth to study the link between above-ground testing and human exposure. The undisputed link between the tests and a radioactive element in baby teeth provided much of the impetus for the 1963 Test Ban Treaty, which outlawed above-ground nuclear weapons-testing.
The rediscovery of the 85,000 samples, about a quarter of the total collected, has spurred a new effort to study the link between early childhood exposure and health problems in later life.
There is already evidence that 1950s children in St. Louis grew into adults with a higher-than-average rate of cancer. Now researchers at the Radiation and Public Health Project, based in Brooklyn, are attempting to find more than 6,000 of the teeth donors to track their health problems or, in some cases, their premature deaths.
The link between radioactive fallout and subsequent health problems is an international issue.
Families Against Radiation to post beach
FARE to post beach Northumberland Today By Louise BarracloughP 24 April 09
Families Against Radiation Exposure (FARE) plans to release soil test results on Saturday, Apr. 25, showing that a popular Port Hope beach playground is contaminated with uranium.The volunteer environmental organization has decided to hand out brochures to fishermen and residents at noon at the East Beach park at Mill and Madison Streets.
FARE believes the public, which uses the beach area, has a right to know that it is contaminated by uranium more than four times higher than guidelines issued by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
What is disturbing is that the testing was done by SENES Consultants for Cameco Corporation and sent in a report to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in June, 2008, but nobody told the municipality or the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office (LLRWMO).It was FARE which informed them of the problem on March 20, shortly after receiving them through the federal Access to Information Act from the CNSC.Uranium-in-soil concentrations of more than 98 parts per million were recorded at the park – three times higher than the LLRWMO clean-up criteria.
It is also much higher than the CCME standard of 23 parts per million, which signifies a “no- or low-effect” on human health.The park has been declared safe. Cameco confirmed the soil test results but claims that the uranium contamination has nothing to do with its operations or those of Eldorado Nuclear.FARE believes a public investigation needs to occur to determine what caused the contamination, why the park is not being posted or cleaned up, and why the municipality was not told a year ago.Louise BarracloughInterim president, FAREPort Hope
Unnecessary scans pose health risk, UVic study shows
Unnecessary scans pose health risk, UVic study shows
By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver SunApril 22, 2009
VANCOUVER — Health consumers are largely naive about radiation and other risks that come with full-body and other screening tests marketed by private clinics, a University of Victoria health policy researcher says.
Alan Cassels, co-author of a recent report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said people seem to think early detection of any disease is safe and always a good thing if it is under the guise of so-called preventive medicine.
“But offering for sale [for up to $2,500] heart, lung or full-body scans to healthy people with no symptoms is questionable, controversial, unregulated and not even recommended by professional associations of radiologists,” he said…………………………………
A recent article in The Medical Post, a publication primarily for doctors, stated that one CT of the heart was equivalent to about 600 chest X-rays.
Radiation dose from imaging equipment is measured in millisieverts (mSv). A CT of the heart exposes an individual to an estimated radiation dose of 12 mSv. It’s been estimated that a person living in Vancouver has a background radiation of about 2.5 mSv in a year.
In the journal Radiology this month, Boston researchers reported that patients who have many CT scans in their lifetime may be at increased risk for cancer from the accumulated exposure to radiation…………..
……………..The American Heart Association recently stated that radiation exposure has increased by more than 700 per cent in the past 20 years, much of it due to CT scans.
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggests
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggestsLast Updated: Monday, April 20, 2009 | 6:15 PM ET Comments5Recommend9CBC NewsThyroid cancer seems to be more aggressive in patients who were exposed to radiation at work or for treatment of another condition, a Canadian study says.Survivors of atomic bombs and children living near areas contaminated by the 1986 nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine suggest radiation is linked to both benign and malignant thyroid tumours, according to the study in the April issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery…………………..
Over an average of 10.6 years of followup, the radiation-exposed group was more likely to:
- Have their thyroid removed (83 per cent versus 38 per cent in the group that wasn’t exposed to radiation).
- Need more surgery (23 per cent versus two per cent).
- Have advanced stage IV disease (16 per cent versus five per cent).
- Have distant metastases, or spread far from the original site (nine per cent versus two per cent).
- Have thyroid cancer at followup (eight per cent versus three per cent).
- Have died of the disease (four per cent versus 1.5 per cent)……………………………..Last week, the Canadian Cancer Society noted that more cases of thyroid cancer are being diagnosed, particularly among young people. The uptick in cases, which was estimated to be 4,300 in 2008 across the country, is attributed to improvements in diagnostic technology.
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggests
WMICentral – Payments available to those exposed to radiation
Payments available to those exposed to radiation wmicentral.com 14 April 09 Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act providing for compassionate payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases as a result of their exposure to radiation released during above-ground nuclear weapons tests or as a result of their exposure to radiation during employment in underground uranium mines…………………………. Northern Arizona RESEP (Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program) through North Country HealthCare is set up to provide education to the public concerning the effects of nuclear radiation due to nuclear fallout or nuclear materials such as uranium…………………………..For those who lived in the following counties: Coconino, Yavapai, Apache, Navajo, Gila and Mohave (north of the Grand Canyon) between 1951-1958 and July 1962, employed as a uranium worker beginning Jan. 1, 1942, ending Dec. 31, 1971 or worked as an on-site participant may qualify for federal compensation from $50,000 to $100,000. If you fit any areas listed above, you may have been exposed to radiation and should be screened for cancer and other serious problems that can develop years after exposure.
The RESEP program provides a no cost medical screenings and/or guidance in applying for federal compensation; one may also file on behalf deceased relative who may have been affected.
Learn more by visiting the following Web sites:
* North County HealthCare RESEP Program – http://www.northcountrychc.org/services/outreach/resep.asp
* Department of Justice RESEP Program – http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm
* HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) RESEP –http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/radiationexposure/
For additional information, contact Tobi Flanagan at (928) 522-2466 and Cornelia Todecozy at (928) 774-6299.
WMICentral – Payments available to those exposed to radiation
Pirates, Bankers, Libertarians
Getting a Grip Pirates, Bankers, Libertarians ARTVOICE by Michael I. Niman 16 April 09 – “………………..Somalia, a country that hasn’t had an operating central government since 1991, is a libertarian Republican’s wet dream, where entrepreneurs can grow their businesses unfettered by laws and regulations. Out of this brave new old world of unbridled capitalism, 21st-century Blackbeards have emerged, shoeless gangstas doing it Somali style on the high seas,…………………….There’s a reason why the Maersk Alabama was the first American ship seized by pirates in two centuries. Ninety percent of internationally traded goods are transported on approximately 50,000 freighters and tankers, but putting aside domestic and Great Lakes shipping, only about 200 of these ships are registered to the United States and staffed by Americans. Today’s ships are registered under “flags of convenience,” exempting their multinational corporate owners from taxes and environmental and labor regulation……………
………………..When Somalia’s government fell in 1991, making Somalia a free-market free-for-all, it opened the door for all sorts of exploitation on the lawless coast……………………..a new type of European pirate followed in their wake—this time using the Somali coast as a toxic and radioactive waste dump. The Independent quotes the United Nations envoy to Somalia as reporting not only that “Somebody is dumping nuclear waste here,” but “there is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury” showing up in Somalia’s coastal waters. In 2005, more than 300 coastal residents died from radiation sickness after leaking barrels of radioactive waste started washing ashore. Much of the toxic waste found on the Somali coast is traceable to European hospitals and industrial facilities.
Landfills raise radiaoactive concerns
Landfills raise concernsPollution prompts calls for operators to help provide clean water The State 11 April 09 By SAMMY FRETWELL – sfretwell@thestate.com
“…………………….All told, landfills across South Carolina — from nuclear waste dumps to disposal sites on military bases — have polluted the groundwater in 125 places, according to DHEC’s 2008 groundwater contamination inventory.
Puntland: The Shame on Somali Identity
Puntland: The Shame on Somali Identity Somaliland Press Hargeisa, 9 April 2009 ( – The history of the illegitimate semi-autonomous administration of “Puntland” is shame on Somalia, because of its connection to many illegal operations like agreements with Mafia to dump toxic nuclear wastes in the Somali water, and today’s piracy.Recently the Office of UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon issued report accusing “Puntland” administration for sponsoring piracy.
In Dec 2008, the “Puntland” pirates hijacked ship loaded with toxic chemicals – the wastes of nuclear – from European firms. The powder-like chemicals were sealed off in containers, but the ignorant pirates forced the crew to open. The crew requested the codes and opened the containers. Today, all members of the pirates are either dead or suffering serious skin problems in “Puntland” hospitals.
…………………………….. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera English that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline. These firms signed contracts with Puntland administration, and warlords in Southern Somalia…………….“What is most alarming here is that nuclear waste is being dumped. Radioactive uranium waste that is potentially killing Somalis and completely destroying the ocean.”
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