First Peoples of the Atomic Age

Journal of the History of Biology, 1992

Mutations" have been crucial to the science of genetics, to the construction of evolutionary theory, and to efforts to understand the biological effects of radiation. Scientists have localized the abstraction of a "gene" by studying how its (mutant) effect was inherited. While a trait common to an entire population could not be analyzed, a deviation, thanks to its visual accessibility, could be. 1 At the same time, "mutation" has been a remarkably plastic concept, interpreted differently depending on the problem being investigated, the organism of interest, or the consequences of the interpretation. This paper examines the working concept of "mutation" in the original genetics study of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), established in Japan to track the long-term medical effects (both somatic and genetic) of exposure to radiation on the survivors of the August 1945 bombings.

Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure, and Expertise, 2018

Journal of the HIstory of Biology, 2015

This article traces disagreements about the genetic effects of low-dose radiation exposure as waged by James Neel (1915–2000), a central figure in radiation studies of Japanese populations after World War II, and Yuri Dubrova (1955–), who analyzed the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. In a 1996 article in Nature, Dubrova reported a statistically significant increase in the minisatellite (junk) DNA mutation rate in the children of parents who received a high dose of radiation from the Chernobyl accident, contradicting studies that found no significant inherited genetic effects among offspring of Japanese A-bomb survivors. Neel’s subsequent defense of his large-scale longitudinal studies of the genetic effects of ionizing radiation consolidated current scientific understandings of low-dose ionizing radiation. The article seeks to explain how the Hiroshima/Nagasaki data remain hegemonic in radiation studies, contextualizing the debate with attention to the perceived inferiority of Soviet genetic science during the Cold War.

The explosion of atom bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 resulted in very high casualties, both immediate and delayed but also left a large number of survivors who had been exposed to radiation, at levels that could be fairly precisely ascertained. Extensive follow-up of a large cohort of survivors (120,000) and of their offspring (77,000) was initiated in 1947 and continues to this day. In essence, survivors having received 1 Gy irradiation (1000 mSV) have a significantly elevated rate of cancer (42% increase) but a limited decrease of longevity (1 year), while their offspring show no increased frequency of abnormalities and, so far, no detectable elevation of the mutation rate. Current acceptable exposure levels for the general population and for workers in the nuclear industry have largely been derived from these studies, which have been reported in more than 100 publications. Yet the general public, and indeed most scientists, are unaware of these data: it is widely believed that irradiated survivors suffered a very high cancer burden and dramatically shortened life span, and that their progeny were affected by elevated mutation rates and frequent abnormalities. In this article, I summarize the results and discuss possible reasons for this very striking discrepancy between the facts and general beliefs about this situation.

Journal of the History of Biology, 2007

1973

More than 25 years after the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the late effects of radiation on the health of the survivors are still incompletely known. However, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) continues to monitor moribidity and mortality of A-bomb survivors. The ABCC is a binational endeavor; the parent organizations are the U.S. National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC) and the Japanese National Institute of Health (JNIH) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (1). The late R. Keith Cannan, who, for many years, as Chairman of the Division of Medical Sciences of the NAS-NRC, had general responsibility for ABCC on the U.S. side, has reviewed the history of the Commission (2). Miller (3) has summarized the major findings as to delayed radiation effects. Dr. James Hollingsworth (1) reviewed the major findings from 1948-1959. The present report concerns the following decade (1958-1968) during which a new study plan was put into effect. In the late 1950's, ABCC completed the organization of a program based on a revised study cohort designed to permit large-scale epidemiologic studies on the effects of sublethal whole-body radiation. The cohort selection was based on a Special Survey of A-bomb Survivors made in 1950. In brief, nonirradiated, distally located survivors as well as subjects not present in the cities at the time of the bomb were matched by age and sex with survivors who sustained variable amounts of radiation. Selection and characterization are described in detail elsewhere (4-6).

Journal of the History of Biology, 2015

This article traces disagreements about the genetic effects of low-dose radiation exposure as waged by James Neel (1915–2000), a central figure in radiation studies of Japanese populations after World War II, and Yuri Dubrova (1955–), who analyzed the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. In a 1996 article in Nature, Dubrova reported a statistically significant increase in the minisatellite (junk) DNA mutation rate in the children of parents who received a high dose of radiation from the Chernobyl accident, contradicting studies that found no significant inherited genetic effects among offspring of Japanese A-bomb survivors. Neel’s subsequent defense of his large-scale longitudinal studies of the genetic effects of ionizing radiation consolidated current scientific understandings of low-dose ionizing radiation. The article seeks to explain how the Hiroshima/Nagasaki data remain hegemonic in radiation studies, contextualizing the debate with attention to the perceived inferiority of Soviet genetic science during the Cold War.

Hiroshima journal of medical sciences, 2020

Medical research spurred by radiation exposure is a critically important theme for modern society. Accordingly, studies of this contemporary problem should be based on a perspective that is focused on that origin, medical investigations into the effects of radiation exposure on survivors of the atomic bombs. Therefore, we organized and evaluated survey programs and research of atomic bomb survivors that have been conducted by ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) –RERF (Radiation Effects Research Foundation) and RIRBM (Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine) between 1949 and 1975. ABCC established a set of carefully defined cohorts and launched an integrated research program based on three phases of pure research. That work has formed the foundation for the research that the RERF is engaged in today. And among surveys and studies worldwide that have generated fundamental data on radiation protection standards, the findings of ABCC-RERF surveys and studies have provid...

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2011

ABSTRACTFor 63 years scientists in the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and its successor, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, have been assessing the long-term health effects in the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in their children. The identification and follow-up of a large population (approximately a total of 200 000, of whom more than 40% are alive today) that includes a broad range of ages and radiation exposure doses, and healthy representatives of both sexes; establishment of well-defined cohorts whose members have been studied longitudinally, including some with biennial health examinations and a high survivor-participation rate; and careful reconstructions of individual radiation doses have resulted in reliable excess relative risk estimates for radiation-related health effects, including cancer and noncancer effects in humans, for the benefit of the survivors and for all humankind. This article reviews those risk estimates and summariz...

Cancer Investigations, 2021

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 submicron 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.