Ionizing radiation and cancer: The failure of the risk model.

This review presents evidence that the methodology that supports the current radiation risk model for cancer is insecure. As a consequence, the legal limits on internal exposures to certain common radionuclides are incorrect by several orders of magnitude. Because of this, hundreds of millions of people will have developed cancer due to internal exposures from atmospheric testing fallout, nuclear accidents, Depleted Uranium and releases from nuclear sites. There are fatal errors in both the mechanistic and epidemiological bases of the Linear No Threshold (LNT) Absorbed Dose model. The review discusses the history of the model and refers to published studies that clearly demonstrate these errors. It argues that the ways in which the models were constructed were arbitrary, capricious and unscientific.

Blood-brain barrier dysfunction in bipolar disorder: Molecular mechanisms and clinical implications.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric disorder affecting approximately 1-3% of the population and characterized by a chronic and recurrent course of debilitating symptoms. An increasing focus has been directed to discover and explain the function of Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) integrity and its association with a number of psychiatric disorders; however, there has been limited research in the role of BBB integrity in BD. Multiple pathways may play crucial roles in modulating BBB integrity in BD, such as inflammation, insulin resistance, and alterations of neuronal plasticity. In turn, BBB impairment is hypothesized to have a significant clinical impact in BD patients. Based on the high prevalence of medical and psychiatric comorbidities in BD and a growing body of evidence linking inflammatory and neuroinflammatory mechanisms to the disorder, recent studies have suggested that BBB dysfunction may play a key role in BD's pathophysiology. In this comprehensive narrative review, we aim to discuss studies investigating biological markers of BBB in patients with BD, mechanisms that modulate BBB integrity, their clinical implications on patients, and key targets for future development of novel therapies.

The Hiroshima A-Bomb Black Rain and the Lifespan Study; A Resolution of the Enigma.

The Japanese Lifespan Study (LSS) of the A-Bomb survivors is the principal basis of the current legal radiological framework. Evidence provided for the first time here shows that internal exposure to radiologically significant quantities of Uranium-234 contained in sub-micron particle rainout from the un-fissioned weapon warhead, the Black Rain, is a missing exposure in the LSS analysis. It is argued that this is responsible for a background excess cancer risk in all the LSS dose groups. This, together with epidemiological evidence based on unexposed controls falsifies the LSS cancer vs. dose regression coefficients for internal exposure.

High Cancer Risk in US Naval Personnel Serving in Nuclear Powered Ships.

The USA Defense Threat Reduction Agency provided data in 2014 on the health status, including cancer, of the 4,843 sailors on the nuclear-powered United States Ship (USS) Ronald Reagan over the 2.55-year period from May 12, 2011 to Dec 31, 2013. Also provided were data on a matched control group of 65,269 US Navy personnel. Examination of the control population relative to the US national data gives a relative risk for all malignancies of RR = 9.2 (95% CI 8.48 < 9.2 < 9.96). The result suggests a significant cancer risk associated with serving on a nuclear-powered ship, one which is not predicted by the science underlying current radiation protection legislation.

Genetic radiation risks: a neglected topic in the low dose debate.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the accuracy and scientific validity of the current very low risk factor for hereditary diseases in humans following exposures to ionizing radiation adopted by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The value is based on experiments on mice due to reportedly absent effects in the Japanese atomic bomb (Abomb) survivors. METHODS: To review the published evidence for heritable effects after ionising radiation exposures particularly, but not restricted to, populations exposed to contamination from the Chernobyl accident and from atmospheric nuclear test fallout. To make a compilation of findings about early deaths, congenital malformations, Down's syndrome, cancer and other genetic effects observed in humans after the exposure of the parents. To also examine more closely the evidence from the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology and discuss its scientific validity. RESULTS: Nearly all types of hereditary defects were found at doses as low as one to 10 mSv. We discuss the clash between the current risk model and these observations on the basis of biological mechanism and assumptions about linear relationships between dose and effect in neonatal and foetal epidemiology. The evidence supports a dose response relationship which is non-linear and is either biphasic or supralinear (hogs-back) and largely either saturates or falls above 10 mSv. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the current risk model for heritable effects of radiation is unsafe. The dose response relationship is non-linear with the greatest effects at the lowest doses. Using Chernobyl data we derive an excess relative risk for all malformations of 1.0 per 10 mSv cumulative dose. The safety of the Japanese A-bomb epidemiology is argued to be both scientifically and philosophically questionable owing to errors in the choice of control groups, omission of internal exposure effects and assumptions about linear dose response.

Pilot study of congenital anomaly rates at birth in fallujah, iraq, 2010.

OBJECTIVES: To examine numbers of congenital anomaly (CA) at birth overall and by class in one clinic in Fallujah General Hospital, Fallujah, Iraq. STUDY DESIGN: All congenital anomaly birth referrals to one pediatric clinician at Fallujah General Hospital for an eleven month period beginning November 1, 2009 were recorded. This clinic was one of three clinics to which cases would be referred. RESULTS: There were 291 CA cases registered at birth in the period at the study's clinic. The total number of births recorded in the hospital over the period was 6049. The CAs included 113 heart and circulatory system cases, 72 nervous system cases, 40 digestive system cases, 9 genitourinary cases, 6 ear, face and neck cases, 7 respiratory cases and 30 Down syndrome cases. CONCLUSION: Owing to difficulties establishing the exact number of births from which these cases were drawn, the exact rates cannot be precisely determined. Nevertheless, on the basis of reasonable assumptions relating to the activity of the clinic involved, these results support earlier epidemiological findings. On the basis of work reported elsewhere, the higher rates of congenital anomalies are believed to be caused by exposure to some genotoxic agent, possibly uranium.

Uranium and other contaminants in hair from the parents of children with congenital anomalies in Fallujah, Iraq.

BACKGROUND: Recent reports have drawn attention to increases in congenital birth anomalies and cancer in Fallujah Iraq blamed on teratogenic, genetic and genomic stress thought to result from depleted Uranium contamination following the battles in the town in 2004. Contamination of the parents of the children and of the environment by Uranium and other elements was investigated using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Hair samples from 25 fathers and mothers of children diagnosed with congenital anomalies were analysed for Uranium and 51 other elements. Mean ages of the parents was: fathers 29.6 (SD 6.2); mothers: 27.3 (SD 6.8). For a sub-group of 6 women, long locks of hair were analysed for Uranium along the length of the hair to obtain information about historic exposures. Samples of soil and water were also analysed and Uranium isotope ratios determined. RESULTS: Levels of Ca, Mg, Co, Fe, Mn, V, Zn, Sr, Al, Ba, Bi, Ga, Pb, Hg, Pd and U (for mothers only) were significantly higher than published mean levels in an uncontaminated population in Sweden. In high excess were Ca, Mg, Sr, Al, Bi and Hg. Of these only Hg can be considered as a possible cause of congenital anomaly. Mean levels for Uranium were 0.16 ppm (SD: 0.11) range 0.02 to 0.4, higher in mothers (0.18 ppm SD 0.09) than fathers (0.11 ppm; SD 0.13). The highly unusual non-normal Fallujah distribution mean was significantly higher than literature results for a control population Southern Israel (0.062 ppm) and a non-parametric test (Mann Whitney-Wilcoxon) gave p = 0.016 for this comparison of the distribution. Mean levels in Fallujah were also much higher than the mean of measurements reported from Japan, Brazil, Sweden and Slovenia (0.04 ppm SD 0.02). Soil samples show low concentrations with a mean of 0.76 ppm (SD 0.42) and range 0.1-1.5 ppm; (N = 18). However it may be consistent with levels in drinking water (2.28 µgL-1) which had similar levels to water from wells (2.72 µgL-1) and the river Euphrates (2.24 µgL-1). In a separate study of a sub group of mothers with long hair to investigate historic Uranium excretion the results suggested that levels were much higher in the past. Uranium traces detected in the soil samples and the hair showed slightly enriched isotopic signatures for hair U238/U235 = (135.16 SD 1.45) compared with the natural ratio of 137.88. Soil sample Uranium isotope ratios were determined after extraction and concentration of the Uranium by ion exchange. Results showed statistically significant presence of enriched Uranium with a mean of 129 with SD5.9 (for this determination, the natural Uranium 95% CI was 132.1 < Ratio < 144.1). CONCLUSIONS: Whilst caution must be exercised about ruling out other possibilities, because none of the elements found in excess are reported to cause congenital diseases and cancer except Uranium, these findings suggest the enriched Uranium exposure is either a primary cause or related to the cause of the congenital anomaly and cancer increases. Questions are thus raised about the characteristics and composition of weapons now being deployed in modern battlefields.

Very low dose fetal exposure to Chernobyl contamination resulted in increases in infant leukemia in Europe and raises questions about current radiation risk models.

Following contamination from the Chernobyl accident in April 1986 excess infant leukemia (0-1 y) was reported from five different countries, Scotland, Greece, Germany, Belarus and Wales and Scotland combined. The cumulative absorbed doses to the fetus, as conventionally assessed, varied from 0.02 mSv in the UK through 0.06 mSv in Germany, 0.2 mSv in Greece and 2 mSv in Belarus, where it was highest. Nevertheless, the effect was real and given the specificity of the cohort raised questions about the safety of applying the current radiation risk model of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to these internal exposures, a matter which was discussed in 2000 by Busby and Cato and also in the reports of the UK Committee examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters. Data on infant leukemia in the United Kingdom, chosen on the basis of the cohorts defined by the study of Greece were supplied by the UK Childhood Cancer Research Group. This has enabled a study of leukemia in the combined infant population of 15,466,845 born in the UK, Greece, and Germany between 1980 and 1990. Results show a statistically significant excess risk RR = 1.43 (95% CI 1.13 < RR < 1.80 (2-tailed); p = 0.0025) in those born during the defined peak exposure period of 01/07/86 to 31/12/87 compared with those born between 01/01/80 and 31/12/85 and 01/01/88 and 31/12/90. The excess risks in individual countries do not increase monotonically with the conventionally calculated doses, the relation being biphasic, increasing sharply at low doses and falling at high doses. This result is discussed in relation to fetal/cell death at higher doses and also to induction of DNA repair. Since the cohort is chosen specifically on the basis of exposure to internal radionuclides, the result can be expressed as evidence for a significant error in the conventional modeling for such internal fetal exposures.