Does Radium Attach to Dust?
Are there other Radio-Nuclei that Attach to Dust?

Letter from Dr. Ernest Sternglass August 23, 2001

[See Letter to Congressman McDermott by Leuren Moret 21feb03] 

Reference 3 (a)

Fax to: Lauren Moret
From: F. J Sternglass 
Date: August 23, 2001
Subject: Radiation and dust particles

In response to your request, I have examined the questions and answers following the RAB meeting of May 24.2001 that relate to possible adverse health effects of nuclear waste produced at the Hunters Point Naval Radiological Health Defense Laboratory.

In particular, I have examined the response to question 14 "Does radium attach to dust? Are there other radio-nuclei that attach to dust?" which was not fully answered.

It has long been known that radioactive atoms can attach themselves to dust and other particles such as exhaust from diesel engines. smoke released from incinerators, as well as, other chemicals and vapors in the air, greatly increasing adverse effects of these sources of radiation. This has for instance been observed in the case of radon and other heavy elements for the risk of lung cancer among uranium miners in a study by Lundin. Wagoner and Archer published by the National Institute for Occupational Health Sciences in 1971 (PB--204-871). Laboratory studies at the Harvard School of Medicine by Little et al. involving heavy elements such as plutonium-238 in hamsters published in the journal "Science" in 1975, as well as studies of radioactive lead and polonium in cigarette smoke by Martell published in the "American Scientists" in 1974 and in another paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1983 all showed that radioactive elements attach themselves to fine particles and enhance their biological damage.

More recently, a report by the New York Department of Health in connection with the Lone Island Breast Cancer Study published April 12. 1994 showed that living within a radius of 1 kilometer or 5/8 of a mile from a chemical plant. regardless of the nature of the chemicals released from their stacks, is associated with a significant risk of breast cancer in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Long Island, New York, above the average for Long Island. This is explained by the fact that radioactive atoms are trapped by any type of air pollution or chemicals, making these airborne releases carriers of radioactivity.

In the case of Long Island. nuclear reactors and laboratory facilities using radioactive isotopes have been operating at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Suffolk County since the early 1950s, releasing radioactive gases and particulates that are trapped by local smoke stacks and incinerators. In addition, there are four nuclear power plants operating within a radius of about 50 miles in the surrounding area of New York. New Jersey and Connecticut beginning in the early 1960s that have bad large reported releases of radioactive gases and particulates into the air.

As shown in a paper published in the International Journal of Health Services in 1993 by (Gould and Sternglass. breast cancer mortality rates in Suffolk County rose 72% in Suffolk County between 1960 and 1987, the greatest increase of any similarly sized suburban county in New York State.

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Reference 3 (b)

Unfortunately, the effects of low levels of radioactive elements inhaled or invested over a long period of time when releases into the environment occur were greatly underestimated from studies of individuals exposed to short bursts of externally produced radiation. such as from medical X-rays or by gamma rays emitted in the flash of an atomic bomb. When the exposure occurs continually over a long period of time, free-radical oxygen damage dominates over direct damage to cells. This is further enhanced by the fact that such elements as Strontium-90 produced in the course of nuclear fission concentrates in bone like the chemically similar calcium and irradiates the nearby bone marrow by powerful beta rays of short range. The bone marrow is where the white cells of the immune system are born. found to be extremely effective in destroying these "policemen of the body" at doses of only a small fraction of that from natural background by Stokke et al. in 1968, long after fission was discovered and the first bombs were detonated. As a result. the adverse effects on cancer and infectious diseases are hundreds to thousands of times as great as the same low doses from externally produced X-rays or gamma rays. something that was only understood beginning with the free-radical studies of Petkau at the Canadian Atomic Energy Laboratory in Pinawa, Manitoba. published in 1972, 30 years after the first nuclear fission reactor was built in 1942.

Thus, when the first commercial nuclear plants were built it, 1957, the maximum permissible doses produced by Strontium-90 was 5000 millirems, compared to the most recent limit of only 15 millirems to any organ of persons living near a nuclear plant. In order to keep these plants running. Strontium-90 is no longer required to be measured in milk, fruits, vegetables or other environmental samples. And state health departments all over the country are shipping the milk from counties near nuclear cities into the inner Cities on the theory that dilution with other milk will make an adverse effects undetectable.

But the most recent data for San Francisco listed on the web-site of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta show that whereas breast cancer death rates for White females over 65 declined 24% from their peak in the years 1983-86 when the Rancho Seco reactor near Sacramento had serious releases, the mortality rate for Black women over 65 rose 33% by 1995-98. At the same time. the rate for Asians, who do not drink milk, declined by 43% in this period. The years 1984-1987 was the period when the two Diablo Canyon reactors in San Luis Obispo began to operate, upwind from the largest milk producing counties in California such as Kern County.

It is clear that our society is now suffering the tragic consequences of the unfortunate mistakes that were made in the s eats of the Cold War, when our government kept secret all information on the health damage from nuclear fallout in the interest of national security.

Sincerely yours,

Ernest J. Sternglass, Ph. D.
Professor Emeritus of Radiation Physics 
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Radiology