Disease relevance of Nuclear Warfare

• Chronic exposure to high LET radiation has been shown to cause liver cancer in humans based on studies of patients who received Thorotrast, a colloidal suspension of thorium dioxide formerly used as a radiological contrast agent, and on studies of Russian nuclear weapons workers exposed to internally ingested plutonium [1].

High impact information on Nuclear Warfare

• The lagoon sediments of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands contain a large selection of fallout radionuclides as a result of 43 nuclear weapon tests conducted there between 1948 and 1958 [2].
• United States population dose estimates for iodine-131 in the thyroid after the Chinese atmospheric nuclear weapons tests [3].
• In 1999, a community health partnership was established between Sarov, Russia, and Los Alamos, NM, 2 cities linked by their nuclear weapons histories [4].
• Amifostine was originally developed as a radioprotective agent in a classified nuclear warfare project [5].
• Nuclear weapons and fuel production have left many soils and sediments contaminated with toxic levels of uranium (U) [6].

Biological context of Nuclear Warfare

• The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDH) sponsored a study to reconstruct contaminant doses to the public from operations at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant [7].

Associations of Nuclear Warfare with chemical compounds

• Soil containing thorium oxide (ThO2) was applied to the site for approximately 30 years (early 1960-1990) and was used to simulate a plutonium release from a nuclear weapons accident [8].
• The biokinetics of plutonium-239 and americium-241 in the rat after subcutaneous deposition of contaminated particles from the former nuclear weapons site at Maralinga: implications for human exposure [9].
• Nuclear weapons. Iran's trouble with molybdenum may give diplomacy a second chance [10].
• The distribution and history of nuclear weapons related contamination in sediments from the Ob River, Siberia as determined by isotopic ratios of plutonium and neptunium [11].
• Tritium levels ranged up to 420 mBq L(-1) and showed no evidence of inputs other than those attributed to atmospheric nuclear weapons testing [12].

Gene context of Nuclear Warfare

• High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1): nuclear weapon in the immune arsenal [13].
• Thyroid cancer, however, has been linked to environmental radiation from the Chernobyl accident and from nuclear weapons tests [14].
• BACKGROUND: Medical screening programs at three Departments of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities (Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Oak Ridge, and the Savannah River Site) have included audiometric testing since approximately 1996 [15].
• The work of MPI and NAC at the United Nations and elsewhere is described, and their impact on NATO nuclear weapons policy discussed [16].
• On 8 July 1996, the International Court of Justice gave its Advisory Opinion on the legality of the use or threat of nuclear weapons, in response to a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations. This paper considers the status of Trident, now the United Kingdom's only nuclear weapon system, in the light of the Opinion [17].

References