“Catholic New Times” Volume 26, Number 5
By Rosalie Bertell

At least 30.4 million fatalities and serious injuries attributable to nuclear activities, 1943 – 1990

In the aftermath on Sep. 11, 2001 people tried to find some comparable experience, perhaps one which would assure us that we could survive the trauma, and someday feel like singing and dancing again. There was an emphasis on numbers, and the estimate of the number or casualties began around 6.000 and was gradually reduced to around 3.000. The New York Times with its daily “Portraits in Grief”, gave a human face to these numbers — not with a traditional obituary, but with an intimate glance at the person who was loved. These were holy and healthy ways to cope with the immensity and unbelievable nature of this monstrous act. Understanding that it was underpinned with extreme religious belief makes it even more necessary to come to grips with the motive which prompted suicide killing on a massive scale.

While many people compared the attack on the twin towers to Pearl Harbor, which had launched the United States into the Second World War, I thought of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombs were dropped no to “wake up Japan”, which had already made its bid to surrender, but rather to put the Russians on guard. In fact, President Harry S. Truman stated after the bombing: “Now I have a handle on Uncle Joe (Stalin).”

I thought also about the effect this atomic bomb had on the people who suffered it. There was in the Japanese survivors an extraordinary conviction that war must stop forever. No one else should ever suffer what they had suffered. The survivors became radical pacifists.

Unlike the Japanese, the American government response was like a Wild West posse: get the perpetrators “dead or alive.” Although it was obvious that this was not an attack of one nation against another, war was waged, ignoring the fact that we do have an international police force, Interpol, to which most nations belong. Engaging Interpol in the search for the terrorist, and turning the captured suspects over to the developing International Criminal Court, would have made a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, the U.S has set itself up as the number-one strong man, who cannot trust anyone to help in a crisis. This is also precisely why the U.S. was the target.

In thinking about security in the 21st- century – and again connecting the experience with the atomic bomb, which has become an icon of strength for wealthy countries — I began to realize that this so-called security is built on many dead and wounded people sacrificed for capitalist goals. They are the suicide bombers of the West, although they go generally unnoticed and are not willing, eager victims for the cause. Instead, they are told that their activities are both patriotic and safe. I am thinking about those whose lifeblood has been poured out for our nuclear deterrence. Although we may thy to think of this as America’s bomb, the truth is that almost all economically developed countries, including Canada, are finding a nuclear umbrella to hide under. What has this tactic cost the global community?

Using the estimates of ionizing radiation dose to members of the public from nuclear activities between 1993 and 1990 as estimated by UNSCEAR (The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), I will estimate death and serious injuries caused by this exposure. I originally published estimates in The Ecologist, and used the term “casualties” because I could not decide whether or not to consider severe genetic diseases as deaths or as serious injuries. These genetically damaged offspring will likely die before puberty or be sterile, meaning death to the gene line. In this report, they are considered serious injuries. The estimates of deaths will include both fatal cancers and perinatal or infant deaths. The estimates of injuries will include non-fatal cancers (including skin cancers) in those exposed and serious genetic diseases, congenital diseases or malformations in their offspring, which cause irreversible disabilities over their lifetime. In natural disasters, the serious injuries are often burns, fractured bones or trauma, with a good prognosis in the long term. There are probably many other non-cancer serious illnesses secondary to radiation exposure, such as auto-immune diseases, tuberculosis and AIDS, which I have not included.

Nuclear victims: we have the bodies, the cause is hidden

The twin towers’ collapse, the Pennsylvania plane crash and the Pentagon disaster caused readily identifiable losses: deaths, burns and crash injuries. Even when the body of the loved one was not found, there were family and friends to identify the loss. (Illegal immigrants, whose families were too afraid of deportation to identify them to the authorities, were tragic exceptions.) Nuclear victims can be both local or regional, and global, due to fallout. I will try to distinguish these two large categories.

The nuclear victims are also spread out over time, as well as space, since the pollutants require time to circulate in the earth’s air and water, to be incorporated in plants and animals, and, through the food web, to penetrate into the living tissues of humans. The 1993 UNSCEAR Report to the United Nations decided to cut off estimates at 10.000 years from now — but the process of undermining life will go on still longer if life survives on our planet. Since I am using UNCSCEAR estimates of exposure, my numbers are also limited to the next 10.000 years.

There is one other aspect the reader needs to understand, namely, that the lives shortened and disrupted by exposure to nuclear radiation are disproportionately those of women and children. Women have high-risk tissue and hormonal secretions affecting the thyroid, breast and uterus, which make their risk of cancer after radiation exposure about 1.5 times that of men. Children — who, because they are actively growing, have a longer expected lifespan and immune systems less mature than those of adults — will experience most of the detriment when the general public is exposed to ionizing radiation. We are therefore counting tragedies, which often happen to young adults at the prime of their careers and family lives, leaving small children without a mother or father, and with diminished financial resources and economic security. In this way, too, it is like the twin towers.

It is important to note that what is being measured is the impact over the next 10.000 years of the pollution from nuclear activities between 1943 and 1990. Some impacts have already occurred: others are “committed” to happen to those not yet born. These tragedies are based on releases into the environment, which have already taken place and over which we exert no further control. Obviously, these estimates will increase with continued reliance on nuclear — commercial and weapons industries, continued routine pollution, and inevitable future accidents. They also fail to include the tragedy to come when the nuclear waste, which is now somewhat contained away from the biosphere, is eventually released.

This estimate, which is very conservative, shows that 9.6 million have died or will die, and 20.9 million have been, or will be seriously injured. The reader can expect the toll to increase in the future when more accurate estimates of radiation doses to public are made and when more radioactive pollution, including that from the large amount of radioactive waste, is factored in.

Nuclear atmospheric testing

The primary effect from nuclear weapons testing is on the global population. The widespread distribution of radioactive pollutants globally is expected to cause about 9.1 million fatalities and 19.8 million serious injuries. Locally or regionally, near where these tests were conducted in the Pacific Islands, Nevada or Semipalatinsk, they caused 2.444 deaths and 5.304 serious injuries. The deaths and injuries that resulted from Algerian, Arctic, Indian, Pakistani or Chinese nuclear tests are unknown.

Nuclear weapon fabrication

The estimate of the dose to the public, as given in UNSCEAR 1994, includes only Hanford, Chelyabinsk and the radon released from uranium mining tailings. The French, British, Chinese, Israeli, Indian and Pakistani weapon industries are not included. The death toll from this nuclear weapon production is 22.140 locally/regionally and 4.100 globally. The toll of seriously injured is 48.060 locally/regionally and 8.900 on a global scale.

Nuclear power production

The nuclear-electrical production industry, according to UNSCEAR, has delivered a higher dose to the local and regional population living near the uranium mining and milling sites, or the nuclear generators, than to the global community. This dose has caused, or will cause, about 128.000 fatalities to those living closest to these power plants, and 41.000 deaths to the global community. The expected number of serious injuries to those living near the facilities is 277.000, while those caused globally is 89.000.

Radioisotope production and use

A third type of nuclear industry located in urban settings is the production of radioisotopes for medicinal or industrial use. This has greater impact globally than locally and regionally. The estimated number of fatalities is 820 locally and regionally, and 32.800 globally. The estimated number of serious injuries is 1.780 locally/regionally and 71.000 globally.

Accidents, both military and civilian

The UNSCEAR estimated local/regional and global doses of radiation from the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Kyshtym, Windscale, Palomares, Thule, SNAP 9A Cosmos 954, Ciudad Juarez, Mohammedia and Goiania.

This exposure would be expected to cause 1980 deaths to those near the accident site and 247.000 globally. The serious injury toll would be 4.300 locally and regionally and 536.000 globally. The global accident estimate comes primarily from the Chernobyl disaster. There was a small contribution from Thule, Greenland, and the lost rocket SNAPER 9A, which dispersed plutonium throughout the world. Windscale (now called Sellafield) and Kyshtym were considered to be only local polluters. Palomares radiation exposure was not included at all.

The hidden price in deaths from Nuclear Age is some 3.000 times grater than the damage caused to humans by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, yet we have heard little or nothing about this quiet carnage. When you examine the lifetime suffering form genetic, congenital diseases or malformations, the total damage is overwhelming. In fact, the victims may not even know where their problems come from. However, I, for one, do not consider this human suffering to be a fair trade-off for weapons of mass destruction supposedly produced to “keep the peace” by threatening others with annihilation. We need to rethink “security” for the 21st century.