Post-Fukushima 'anti-radiation' pills condemned by scientists

[alp227]

Source: the guardian

The Green party's former science and technology spokesman is promoting anti-radiation pills to people in Japan affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, that leading scientists have condemned as "useless".

Dr Christopher Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, is championing a series of expensive products and services which, he claims, will protect people in Japan from the effects of radiation. Among them are mineral supplements on sale for ￥5,800 (£48) a bottle, urine tests for radioactive contaminants for ￥98,000 (£808) and food tests for ￥108,000 (£891).

The tests are provided by Busby Laboratories and promoted through a body called the Christopher Busby Foundation for the Children of Fukushima (CBFCF). Both the pills and the tests are sold through a website in California called 4u-detox.com, run by a man called James Ryan.

Though a controversial figure, Busby has been championed by the anti-nuclear movement and some environmentalists. He is still consulted by the Green party on issues such as low-level radiation and depleted uranium, but when contacted by the Guardian the party distanced itself from Busy's activities. Penny Kemp, the Green party communications director, said that the party did not condone Busby's promotion of the products.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/21/christopher-busby-radiation-pills-fukushima

[slackmaster]

1. Smart pills, we call them where I come from

[stockholmer]

2. The Guardian needs to pick it's debunkers a little more carefully, Dr Gerry Thomas is just simply

dead wrong with this:

"But Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College, London, describes his statements about heart disease caused by caesium as "ludicrous". She says that radioactive elements do not bind to DNA. "This shows how little he understands about basic radiobiology."


Radioactive particles DO BIND to DNA, and Dr Thomas has been a pro-nuke shill this entire Fukushima incident,

DNA Radioactive Binding links:

http://www.bioresearchonline.com/article.mvc/New-Twist-for-Tracking-Biological-Trace-Eleme-0002

A group at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory (Ames, IA) has added a new twist to inductively-coupled plasma/mass spectrometery (ICP/MS), an established analytical technique, thereby dramatically advancing the state of the art for identifying the ultratrace metals in biological and environmental materials. The new analytical method promises to explain how radioactive and nonradioactive metals bind to proteins and DNA at very low concentrations.

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http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060307010324data_trunc_sys.shtml

Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established

The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.

Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.

Now however, Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns has established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations, triggering a whole slew of protein replication errors, some of which can lead to various cancers. Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained. While other heavy metals are known to bind to DNA, Stearns and her team were the first to identify this characteristic with uranium.

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http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/17/15/1894.full

Sequence-independent DNA binding and replication initiation by the human origin recognition complex

Sanjay Vashee1,4,
Christin Cvetic2,4,
Wenyan Lu3,
Pamela Simancek3,
Thomas J. Kelly3,6, and
Johannes C. Walter2,5

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Properties of DNA-affinity-purified HsORC. (A) DsDNA affinity purification of HsORC. HsORC prepared as in Figure 1A was further purified by adsorption to magnetic beads containing immobilized DNA followed by elution with 500 mM NaCl as in Figure 3B. SDS-PAGE was used to analyze 1 μL of input, 2 μL of unbound, and 1 μL of eluted fractions, and the individual subunits were detected by silver staining. (B) Titration of protein. DNA-affinity-purified HsORC at the indicated concentrations was incubated with 0.5 nM radiolabeled lamin B2 ori II probe in the presence or absence of 1 mM ATP. The amount of radioactive lamin B2 ori II DNA bound by HsORC was determined by the nitrocellulose filter-binding assay.



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http://www.jstor.org/pss/3577732

Radiation-Induced Binding of DNA from Irradiated Mammalian Cells to Hydroxyapatite Columns


Kathryn D. Held, Jane Mirro, Deborah C. Melder, William F. Blakely, Nancy L. Oleinick and Song-Mao Chiu

Radiation Research
Vol. 123, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), pp. 268-274
(article consists of 7 pages)


Abstract
In experiments designed to measure radiation-induced DNA damage using the DNA unwinding-hydroxyapatite chromatography technique, we observed that under some experimental conditions a significant proportion of the test DNA became tightly bound to the hydroxyapatite (HA) and could not be released even with a high concentration of phosphate buffer. Approximately 5-10% of DNA from unirradiated cells binds to the HA. With increasing radiation doses in air, the fraction of bound DNA increases, reaching about 30% at about 35 Gy. The binding exhibits many of the characteristics of a radiation-induced cell lesion: the proportion of DNA retained by the HA is less when cells are irradiated under hypoxic conditions or in the presence of the thiol radioprotector dithiothreitol; and the binding decreases when an incubation period is allowed between irradiation and harvest of the cells for assay.
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As for Dr Gerry Thomas shilling:

http://www.channel4.com/news/japan-nuclear-panic-is-over-reaction-say-scientists

Thursday 17 March 2011.
As fear spreads in Japan, radiation expert Professor Gerry Thomas tells Channel 4 News: "We are panicking that poor, savaged population about radiation that is not going to harm them."


But some nuclear experts say that the risk of a radiation leak is being exaggerated. Professor Gerry Thomas is Chair in Molecular Pathology at Imperial College, London and an expert in radiation impact. She says that the precautions taken so far should be sufficient to protect people near the site, telling Channel 4 News: "There is no significant release of radiation yet, it's really only the workers that are at risk. We are not looking at an accident anything like Chernobyl.

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20843-fukushima-media-coverage-may-be-harmful.html


We’ve got to stop these sorts of reports coming out, because they are really upsetting the Japanese population,” says Gerry Thomas at Imperial College London, who is attending the meeting. “The media has a hell of a lot of responsibility here, because the worst post-Chernobyl effects were the psychological consequences and this shouldn’t happen again.” <...>


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tell these children that the worst effects were 'psychological'

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl






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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21181-radiation-levels-in-fukushima-are-lower-than-predicted.html


The fallout from the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan may be less severe than predicted. <...>

How did the population of Fukushima prefecture dodge the radioactivity? Gerry Thomas at Imperial College London, director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank, says the answer is simple. “Not an awful lot (of radioactive material) got out of the plant – it was not Chernobyl.” The Chernobyl nuclear disaster released 10 times as much radiation as Fukushima Daiichi.


(Dr Thomas,once again shown to be a shill uses the low-end figure provided early on by Japan Gov't and Tepco) Subsequently contradicted by numerous scientific estimates

one example

New NILU, ZAMG study: Release of radioactive xenon from Fukushima more than double Chernobyl — Largest in history — Started “immediately” after quake

Excerpts from the Oct. 21 joint press release by ZAMG and BOKU http://www.zamg.at/docs/aktuell/20111021_fukushima_review.pdf

“A new study by an international team of researchers estimates the emissions of the radioactive noble gas Xenon‐133 and the aerosol‐bound nuclide Caesium‐137 from the Japanese NPP Fukushima Daiichi.”

“The main result of the investigation is that the emissions from the power plant started earlier, lasted longer and are therefore higher than assumed in most studies conducted before.”

“Regarding the radioactive noble gas Xenon‐133, the results indicate an emission of 16700 Peta‐Becquerel (1 Becquerel is one radioactive decay per second, 1 Peta‐Becquerel equals 1015 Bq). This is the largest civilian noble gas release in history, exceeding the Chernobyl noble gas release by a factor of 2.5. There is strong evidence that emissions started already on 11 March 2011 at 6:00 UTC, which is immediately after the big earthquake. Xenon‐133 is neither ingested nor retained in the inhalation process and therefore of less health concern, but it is important for understanding the accident events.”

“Regarding Cesium‐137, which is of high relevance for human health due to its physical properties and the long half‐life time of 30 years, the new estimate shows that emissions started earlier and ended later than assumed in most studies so far. The total release amounts to 36 PBq, which equals 40% of the Chernobyl emissions. About 20% of the caesium was deposited on Japanese territory, while about 80% was deposited in the water.”

“The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) in Kjeller, Norway, the Institute for Meteorology of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU‐Met) in Vienna, the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Vienna, the Institute of Energy Technologies from the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona (INTE), Spain, and by the Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA.”

SOURCE: 20111021_fukushima_review.pdf

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and here is Dr Thomas playing the nuclear corporate shill, this time working directly for Irish nuclear lobbying group (funded by General Electric, Westinghouse, B&W, etc) "Better Environment with Nuclear Energy" (BENE) with the support of many of the corrupt politicians involved in the banking scams and other 'notables' such as Sir Bernard Ingham, once Margaret Thatcher's Press Secretary :


http://www.bene.ie/BENE/Home.html

Sean Moncrieff, on his Afternoon show on Newstalk 106, interviewed Dr Gerry Thomas of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank (CTB) on the health impacts of Chernobyl. CTB is the first international cooperation that seeks to establish a collection of biological samples from tumours and normal tissues from patients for whom the aetiology of their disease is known - exposure to radioiodine in childhood. The CTB confirms that the only detectable cancer impact of the accident was Thyroid cancer in those children and young adolescents who lived close to Chernobyl in 1986. The incidents of Thyroid cancer fell rapidly since then, in line with the decay of the radioactive Iodine (which has a half-life of 8 days). There has been no detectable increase in other cancers or in genetic birth defects. There are, of course, the deep psychological impacts brought about by the fear of radiation. Dr Thomas says that our fear of radiation would appear to be too great given our improved knowledge of the known impacts following studies of the large radioactivity releases that have occurred to date.


what rot!

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BTW, in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe6lxsl6Pbo&feature=player_embedded , Dr Chris Busby tells people to go buy supplements cheaply at any store

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nice hit piece!!!!

[caraher]

3. Busby is selling snake oil

Where's is Busby's proof of efficacy? It's his claim and thus his burden. He should at least qualify his recommendations by pointing out that these remedies are based on his own speculations and not any actual experiments.

The validity of the critique does not critically depend on the character of Gerry Thomas, whose concerns are echoed and expanded upon in the article by Ohtsura Niwa.

Niwa described Busby's faith in magnesium and calcium supplements for guarding against radionuclides such as strontium, uranium and plutonium as "baseless".

As for the statement, "She says that radioactive elements do not bind to DNA," note first that this is not a direct quotation of Thomas, which makes a difference here because the journalist authors are writing in the limited context of Busby's claims. If Thomas were truly saying the "radioactive elements do not bind to DNA" she's clearly be wrong, since such binding is something that occurs or not largely on the basis of biochemistry and not the stability of the nuclei. Relative to Busby's claims, the only potentially relevant question is whether the isotopes that are actually contaminating the Japanese people might bind to DNA. Those isotopes would be fission products like Cs-137, Sr-90 and the like.

The articles offered on binding to DNA are thus irrelevant to the question of whether Busby's remedies offer a theoretical hope of helping. Look at them one at a time:

http://www.bioresearchonline.com/article.mvc/New-Twist-for-Tracking-Biological-Trace-Eleme-0002">New Twist for Tracking Biological Trace Elements

This article is about a chromatography technique for identifying trace elements, particularly actinides. The only mentions of binding to DNA are generic, such as this line: "Radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, and other actinides are toxic chemically. They also bind to DNA and cause mutations when they decay." The threat to the public in Japan is not from actinides but fission products, whose tendency to bind or not to bind to DNA is unaddressed by this article (which is mainly about a technique for detecting actinides; it's not a paper about research on what binds to DNA).

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060307010324data_trunc_sys.shtml">Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established

This describes solid research on the toxic effects of uranium. Noteworthy is its explicit claim that the toxicity is chemical in nature and not related to uranium's radioactivity. "Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained."

Since there is no widespread uranium contamination across Japan, binding of uranium to DNA and subsequent ill effects are irrelevant to the present case. This is much more pertinent to the concern of the linked article, which is the use of depleted uranium munitions.

http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/17/15/1894.full">Sequence-independent DNA binding and replication initiation by the human origin recognition complex

Apparently this seemed relevant because the researchers used a radioactive tracer technique. The tracer molecules were labeled with phosphorus-32, and those molecules would bind to DNA. Of course, the entire premise of such radiolabeling techniques is that the molecule with the P-32 tracer (or tritium or C-14) behaves almost identically to the corresponding "cold" molecule. So it's no surprise that if you take a molecule known to bind to DNA and label it with a radioactive element, you then get a molecule that is radioactive that binds to DNA. Did Fukushima belch forth gobs of P-32-labeled biomolecules? Of course not.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/3577732">Radiation-Induced Binding of DNA from Irradiated Mammalian Cells to Hydroxyapatite Columns

This is an interesting piece on how radiation exposure causes DNA from cells to bind rather strongly to hydroxyapatite, a calcium compound prevalent in bone and here used as part of a chromatography technique. The exposure in the research comes from relatively high concentrations of tracers labeled with either C-14 or tritium, and from what I can tell based on the abstract and first page mostly concerns the impact of radiation damage caused by the labeling isotopes on the efficacy of the analytical technique. It is completely irrelevant to the question of whether fission products like Cs-137 bind to DNA, because the article is not about any radioactive isotope binding to DNA, but DNA binding to the hydroxyapatite as a result of radiation exposure.

In short, if Thomas really did say radioactive elements do not bind to DNA, she's obviously dead wrong; but it's very unlikely she ever made such a claim. Rather, I suspect she told the Guardian authors either that the fission products in question do not bind to DNA (I don't know whether or not they do) or made a more general statement to the effect that the radioactive isotopes of elements that do not bind to DNA also do not bind to DNA. Moreover, the scientific literature cited provides no support whatsoever to the view that the isotopes Busby wants to guard against bind to DNA. Finally, Thomas is not the sole source of criticism even if she is a suspect messenger, and if Busby wants to be taken seriously as a scientist he needs to do more than campaign through green organizations and "peer-reviewed" journals published by his own organization - and stop peddling with unwarranted assurances unproven remedies to people who have every reason to be concerned.