University researchers find first evidence of internal exposure to radiation in lung cancer cells; victim lived 4.1 km from hypocenter in Hiroshima
Jun. 11, 2015
by Yota Baba, Staff Writer
A group of researchers from Hiroshima University and Nagasaki University has found evidence of internal exposure to radiation in the cancer cells of a woman who lived in an area where radioactive fallout from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was detected. The woman, who has since passed away, developed four kinds of cancer. A report on the group’s findings was presented at a meeting of the Society for the Study of the Aftereffects of the Atomic Bomb that was held in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward on June 7. Nanao Kamada, a professor emeritus at Hiroshima University who specializes in hematology and is a member of the group, said, “This is the first time that evidence of internal exposure to radiation from the A-bombing of Hiroshima has been shown.”
According to Mr. Kamada, the 29-year-old woman was living in Furuta-machi (now part of Nishi Ward), 4.1 km from the hypocenter, at the time of the atomic bombing. She had just given birth and was unable to relocate. For about two weeks she ate vegetables and drank water that she obtained in the vicinity of her house. Starting in 1998, she suffered from one form of cancer after another, including lung cancer, stomach cancer and colon cancer. Because she had been relatively far from the hypocenter, she had almost no external exposure to radiation, so the effect of internal exposure was suspected as the cause of her multiple cancers.
The research group placed cells from the woman’s lung cancer in a special emulsion and then dried and photographed the cells. The radioactive material in the cells emitted alpha rays, and the traces of damage to the cells appeared as black lines. Of the nuclear materials detected in the soil in the same area just after the atomic bombing, only uranium, which has a long half-life, would have remained in 1998, the year the woman’s symptoms appeared. So uranium is believed to be the cause of the woman’s lung cancer.
Extrapolating from the density of the traces of radioactive material, the amount of radiation to which the lung cancer cells were exposed was 10 times that of the lung cells that were not cancerous. “The woman was not directly exposed to the atomic bombing nor was she exposed to radiation by entering the city, so it is highly likely that internal exposure to radiation was related to her multiple cancers,” Mr. Kamada said. “Finding evidence of internal exposure, which tends to be overlooked, is of great significance.”
Traces of internal exposure to radiation among survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki were captured on film through 2009.
(Originally published on June 8, 2015)
A group of researchers from Hiroshima University and Nagasaki University has found evidence of internal exposure to radiation in the cancer cells of a woman who lived in an area where radioactive fallout from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was detected. The woman, who has since passed away, developed four kinds of cancer. A report on the group’s findings was presented at a meeting of the Society for the Study of the Aftereffects of the Atomic Bomb that was held in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward on June 7. Nanao Kamada, a professor emeritus at Hiroshima University who specializes in hematology and is a member of the group, said, “This is the first time that evidence of internal exposure to radiation from the A-bombing of Hiroshima has been shown.”
According to Mr. Kamada, the 29-year-old woman was living in Furuta-machi (now part of Nishi Ward), 4.1 km from the hypocenter, at the time of the atomic bombing. She had just given birth and was unable to relocate. For about two weeks she ate vegetables and drank water that she obtained in the vicinity of her house. Starting in 1998, she suffered from one form of cancer after another, including lung cancer, stomach cancer and colon cancer. Because she had been relatively far from the hypocenter, she had almost no external exposure to radiation, so the effect of internal exposure was suspected as the cause of her multiple cancers.
The research group placed cells from the woman’s lung cancer in a special emulsion and then dried and photographed the cells. The radioactive material in the cells emitted alpha rays, and the traces of damage to the cells appeared as black lines. Of the nuclear materials detected in the soil in the same area just after the atomic bombing, only uranium, which has a long half-life, would have remained in 1998, the year the woman’s symptoms appeared. So uranium is believed to be the cause of the woman’s lung cancer.
Extrapolating from the density of the traces of radioactive material, the amount of radiation to which the lung cancer cells were exposed was 10 times that of the lung cells that were not cancerous. “The woman was not directly exposed to the atomic bombing nor was she exposed to radiation by entering the city, so it is highly likely that internal exposure to radiation was related to her multiple cancers,” Mr. Kamada said. “Finding evidence of internal exposure, which tends to be overlooked, is of great significance.”
Traces of internal exposure to radiation among survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki were captured on film through 2009.
(Originally published on June 8, 2015)
