Falling out...it's time to change our minds
July 21, 2023
Atomic Fallout—the Ground is Broken; Our Hearts are Broken
Friends, Sébastien Philippe, Susan Alzner, Megan Smith, Mason Grimshaw and Gilbert Compo have updated our understanding of radioactive Fallout from US above-ground continental nuclear weapons tests, 1945—1962. Check out the new map, posted here:
https://sgs.princeton.edu/news-announcements/news-2023-07-21
Backgrounder on health consequences of Fallout – This column was written independent from the paper cited above…but DO go look at the map, if you have not. Stunning new view.
Since fatal cancer and some catastrophic impacts to pregnancy originate from damage to a single living cell, there is no amount of ionizing radiation that is safe. It is therefore extremely appropriate in terms of human and environmental health, that particles of plutonium from nuclear weapons fallout has been chosen as the marker for the new geologic epoch in which the dominant force acting on this planet is us.
The Anthropocene is, so far, a time of imbalance and disease, including destabilization of our climate, destruction of natural habitat sending extinction rates up and biodiversity down, made worse by dumping new toxic chemicals widely, polluting air, water and food. Radiation from nuclear fission adds the additional scrambling of genes and genomes.
Fallout warrants an update from the health perspective. The disproportionate impact of bomb radiation on women and girls is established, and particularly troubling given the global distribution of fallout particles. However, a new paper from Dr Alfred Körblein is the first to find the correlation of very large numbers of lives lost and fallout. Körblein reports the death rate of infants (live-birth) in five European nations (UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain) and the U.S. during and following the period of atmospheric nuclear testing (1945—1963). After a tour de force statistical analysis, Körblein concludes: “atmospheric nuclear weapons testing may be responsible for the deaths of several million babies in the Northern Hemisphere.”
A clear spike (25% increase) in infant deaths was previously reported by Tucker and Alvarez citing New Mexico state records after the 1945 Trinity Test. These are live births, not losses of pregnancies, which may have been much higher. Körblein examined biological sex as a factor, but found no strong correlation. Infant death was likely due to insufficient immune capacity.
Fallout is not only in the past, when worldwide 528 nuclear detonations were made in our atmosphere. In 2021 Science Magazine reported detection of Cesium-137 in honey in the United States. While only trace levels were found in the honey, radioactivity from Cesium, a major constituent of the fine particles of fallout that drift back down, or are carried down in much higher concentrations by rain. Cesium, inhaled or ingested mimics potassium in the body, where uptake is primarily to muscle, including the heart. Cardiovascular damage has now been linked to radiation as a causal agent for heart disease and stroke.
Highly radioactive fallout particles have been dispersed worldwide, not only the lake in Canada where the Anthropocene spike will be placed. This is demonstrated in the modern digital modeling work of Sebastien Philippe and his team on French nuclear tests in Polynesia.
The widescale distribution of highly radioactive cesium, iodine, strontium and also plutonium, known carcinogens at any concentration have been contributors to the widescale suffering of cancers. Fission products in our air, food and water have contributed to reproductive impacts. Due to many factors, the global birth rate has dropped in half since 1950 and the impact of fallout is likely to be part of this.
Exploding a nuclear weapon in the biosphere is not only a test of the weapon—it is a test of life itself, in a massive, uncontrolled experiment. Thankfully, our species retains the capacity to change our minds, and invest in a healthy future. The United Nations General Assembly declared a healthy environment to be a universal Human Right in July, 2022. Perhaps the Anthropocene will also be a time of healing.
CITATIONS IN ORDER
July 15, 2023. University of Southampton. Crawford Lake chosen as the primary marker to identify the start of the Anthropocene epoch
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-crawford-lake-chosen-primary-marker.html
July, 2023. Canadian lake chosen to represent start of Anthropocene. Nuclear bomb fallout marks dawn of new epoch in which humanity dominates planet.
2019. Olson. Disproportionate impact of radiation and radiation regulation. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03080188.2019.1603864 and reported in Newsweek and MSN:
2023. Körblein A Statistical modeling of trends in infant mortality after atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0284482. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284482
2019. Tucker and Alvarez. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Trinity: “The most significant hazard of the entire Manhattan Project”
https://thebulletin.org/2019/07/trinity-the-most-significant-hazard-of-the-entire-manhattan-project/
August, 2022. Testing Tally infographic. Nuclear Arms Control Association. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nucleartesttally
April, 2021. Ogasa, Nikk. Science Magazine: Nuclear fallout is showing up in U.S. honey, decades after bomb tests.
https://www.science.org/content/article/nuclear-fallout-showing-us-honey-decades-after-bomb-tests
2017. Sébastien Philippe, et al. The Moruroa Files. https://moruroa-files.org/en/about
2022. Our World in Data. Fertility Rate: Children per Woman. Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects (2022). https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-per-woman-UN?tab=chart&time=1950..latest
2022. General Assembly declares a healthy environment a universal human right. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482