Both the great Truths and the great Falsehoods of the twentieth century lie hidden in the arcane, widely inaccessible, and seemingly mundane domain of the radiation sciences

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Trial of the Cult of Nuclearists: SCAM NUMBER TWENTY-THREE



What follows is the continuation, in serial form, of a central chapter from my book A Primer in the Art of Deception: The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science.



SCAM NUMBER TWENTY-THREE: Derive the risks to health from exposure to ionizing radiation from corrupted epidemiological data.


It does not take an epidemiologist, when examining Exhibit C, to recognize that the Life Span Study of the survivors of the first atomic bombings in Japan is seriously and irreparably flawed. And yet, the radiation protection community throughout the world upholds this study as the most important source of information available to mankind on the health effects of ionizing radiation. What is going on? Something, somewhere is seriously amiss.


Of the numerous defects that compromise the Life Span Study, three stand out as fatal: 1) The dosages assigned to members of the study population are questionable guesses. 2) Between the time of the bombing and the time the study was initiated, tens of thousands of victims died of non-blast related, radiation-induced illnesses. Yet, these casualties conveniently play no part in this so-called definitive study, purported to provide reliable information of the relationship between dose and physiological response to radiation exposure. 3) The contamination of both the study and control populations with internalized radionuclides invalidates any meaningful conclusions of the incidence of disease in one population compared to the other. Clearly, by ignoring points 2 and 3, the Life Span Study is intentionally designed to deliver results that “prove” that radiation is less hazardous than it in fact is. Given its structure, it cannot help but underestimate radiation effects. It’s a rigged game.


The Life Span Study is the doorway into the heart of darkness of the Nuclear Age. By it, one can catch a glimpse of the vast machinations of the Cult of Nuclearists to corrupt the science of radiation protection so it can go about its deeds unhindered. The LSS is deeply flawed science. Yet, it is lauded by the radiation protection community as a valid basis on which to erect standards of protection for all mankind. This state of affairs is appalling and remains completely nonsensical until one concedes that, yes, mischief is afoot in the science of radiation safety.


The Life Span Study has been strategically crafted as the keystone of the current myth of how the human organism responds to exposure to ionizing radiation. It is the lynchpin that holds together the corrupted paradigm of radiation effects that this chapter has been devoted to deconstructing. By the dictates of this myth, biological effect is directly proportional to the amount of energy absorbed. This energy can be treated as an abstract mathematical entity and averaged over a mass of tissue even when that tissue has not been uniformly disturbed by that energy. Whether delivered externally by x-rays or gamma rays, or internally by radioactive decay of radionuclides, dose for dose, weighting factors considered, the biological effects are the same under this model. Low-dose effects can be modelled, or extrapolated, from high-dose effects. Low doses of radiation represent no hazard to the health of the organism. And, cancer is the only endpoint of concern from radiation exposure.


The data from Japan has been erected as the “scientific” proof of this myth. It is what gives credence to current concepts of dose-response. Anointed with such legitimacy, the Life Span Study can be used to justify current emission standards from nuclear installations, the doses of radiation permitted to the public, current concepts of what risks to health accompany radiation exposure, and so forth. All of these become suspect when the results of Japan are called into question. The glaring shortcomings of the LSS testify before all humanity that the agencies setting radiation protection guidelines have been infiltrated, corrupted, and politicized and have had their scientific objectivity thoroughly compromised.