Protect your girls: We show that biological sex IS a factor in radiation outcomes, WIDELY
NEWS: We show in a new paper that the finding that girls and women suffer greater harm from radiation exposure compared to boys and men (who are also harmed) can be seen WIDELY in recent radiation research literature.
Dr Amanda Nichols, University of California at Santa Barbara, lead author, joins Mary Olson, founder of Gender and Radiation Impact Project in the new paper, entitled “Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm.”
The paper is available to view or download at no charge, from the publisher: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research .
The news here is the simple difference between standing on a relatively slender branch, and standing on a robust limb—apply this image to research and it is the difference between evidence found in a limited case, versus the same evidence being FOUND widely—beyond what could have been limited application.
In terms of radiation—a finding was made that radiation harms girls and women more than boys and men in one set of data as early as 2006. That data was in the National Academy of Science (NAS) watershed report called the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII (BEIR VII).
Now, thanks to the invitation by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), I and my co-author Dr Amanda Nichols have sampled the research literature since 2006 (post-BEIR VII) and find that in studies that report data on males and females separately (now common) the sex-based difference can be seen, and in all cases where it is seen, females are harmed more than males.
We present a summary table of 19 papers (Appendix B) that met our criteria for additional substantiation that while males are harmed, females are harmed more. We also offer a set of citations that includes more than 100 relevant papers and books. (The Executive Summary is reprinted here, below.)
This is all bad news—but the worse news is that it has been true even before we discovered it. Bringing this news to light is essential to better radiation protection for all. When we center radiation regulations on those most-harmed, everyone is protected better. The paper offers an extensive list of possible research questions—not for Olson and for Nichols, but from them—to the research communities worldwide. Women hold up half the sky, is a common motto of the United Nations. It’s time we take care of us!
BACKGROUND: Five years ago, I published a peer-reviewed paper showing a pattern in the data published by the NAS, that among those who survived the devastation of the August 1945 nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan (people who were sheltered) female bodies, of all ages, were harmed more than male bodies—measured as incidence of cancer over 60 years of tracking.
The A-bomb survivor data set is the basis for much of what we know about radiation impacts, and many policies about radiation are rooted in that original data. To me, this data is an unforgivable extension of the crime against humanity committed when the first nuclear weapons were used against civilian targets…including the very first test in New Mexico lionized in the film Oppenheimer. On the other hand, the A-bomb survivor’s fates are the only information we have about people from birth to 80 years—all ages and all sexes, across what is now, nearly 80 years.
From the new paper: Gender and Radiation, Towards a New Research Agenda, Addressing Disproportionate Harm
Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers are leading a project to develop a new reference individual as a discussion model to inspire better protection. The new paper is a strong buttress to show the need for this work.
Again, the download link to the new paper is here:
Executive Summary of the new paper:
The detonation of a nuclear weapon in a populated area would cause devastating harm: it can kill thousands of people instantly, whether through the explosion itself, or through the intense heat and high levels of radiation. The mid- and long-term consequences from radiation exposure are less well understood, in part because they manifest differently for male and female survivors.
Robust evidence of differentiated health impacts emerged in 2006, when the US National Academy of Sciences published Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII which reported 60 years of data from the Life Span Study of atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nearly 20 years after the publication of that report, this report speaks to the extent to which new evidence has been published regarding the correlation between harm from exposure to ionizing radiation and biological sex.
This report concludes the following:
Ø The post-2006 radiation research reviewed in this report provides clear evidence that radiation causes more cancer, heart disease, and stroke in women compared to men.
Ø Several studies present evidence that supports the hypothesis that a higher percentage of reproductive tissue in the female body could be one contributing factor to the greater rate of harm from radiation exposure in females compared to males.
Ø In addition to biological sex, some studies suggest that age at time of exposure may be an important factor in assessing radiation outcomes.
Ø Girls (ages 0–5 years) are the most at risk post-birth lifecycle stage for developing cancer and non-cancer related health consequences over the course of the lifetime from exposure to ionizing radiation.
These findings are important for discussions about nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, given that sex-specific and gendered impacts of nuclear weapons are a prominent topic during the meetings of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
More research is needed, however, that takes seriously the ways that age and intergenerational impacts inform discussions about radiological harm. This report concludes with an outline of a future research agenda and suggests research questions applicable across a number of disciplines and lines of inquiry.
Questions? Want to hear more?
Olson and Nichols are available.
Contact us via gender.radiation@gmail.com
We are looking forward to building on this work in 2025! Stay tuned.