In Response to 'Fuku Kids Unwitting Radioactive Guinea Pigs'
by Steven Starr, Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Studies in Belarus, by Dr. Yuri Bandazhevsky, have conclusively demonstrated, through human autopsy and tissue analysis, that radioactive cesium *bioaccumulates in humans*, especially in infants and children (see Swiss Med article," Chronic Cs-137 incorporation in children's organs", at http://www.smw.ch/docs/pdf200x/2003/35/smw-10226.pdf ). Bandazhevsky found that cesium-137 will concentrate in the heart and endocrine tissues at rates up to ten times higher than in surrounding muscle tissues; Bandazhevsky's research demonstrates that Cs-137 is strongly associated with heart disease in children; damage to the kidneys was also observed after ceisum bioaccumulated there, producing hypertension and compounding pathological processes in the heart.Furthermore, Bandazhevsky found increased levels of insulin-dependent diabetes in juveniles that he associated with damage to pancreatic tissues from radioactive cesium. I would suggest that this the mechanism producing the observed increased rates of diabetes in Fukushima children (although I was not able to use the provided URL to check the reference listed in the above article).
Bandazhevsky noted the increased rates of heart disease and juvenile diabetes in Belarus, which received massive fallout from the destruction of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, and which has hundreds of thousands of children living in regions severely contaminated with radioactive cesium. These children must subsist upon foodstuffs that are contaminated with Cs-137, and it is the routine ingestion of so-called "low-dose" Cs-137 that leads to its bioaccumulation inside their bodies and subsequent development of disease.
Radioactive cesium makes up about 40% of the long-lived radionuclides in used or "spent" nuclear fuel, it is also volatile and thus is spread as fallout when reactors melt and fuel rods ignite and burn. Cs-137 becomes ubiquitous in contaminated ecosystems and makes its way into waters, soils, flora and fauna, it is more concentrated in some foodstuffs like mushrooms and berries, and it biomagnifies as it moves up the food chains, becoming more concentrated in dairy products and milk. This includes human breast milk.
Note also that because Cs-137 concentrates in the endocrine tissues, it will concentrate in the thyroid gland. Thus children get a double dose of radiation, from radioactive iodine, but also from radioactive cesium. If their foodstuffs are routinely contaminated with cesium-137, they will have essentially a continuous exposure, because the Cs-137 that is being eliminated (biological half-life is about 110 days) will be constantly replaced.
