Greetings: 50 years of Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission–Radiation Effects Research Foundation studies

The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission was established in Hiroshima in 1947 and in Nagasaki in 1948 under the auspices of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to initiate a long-term and comprehensive epidemiological and genetic study of the atomic bomb survivors. It was replaced in 1975 by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation which is a nonprofit Japanese foundation binationally managed and supported with equal funding by the governments of Japan and the United States. Thanks to the cooperation of the survivors and the contributions of a multitude of scientists, these studies flourish to this day in what must be the most successful long-term research collaboration between the two countries. Although these studies are necessarily limited to the effects of acute, whole-body, mixed gamma-neutron radiation from the atom bombs, their comprehensiveness and duration make them the most definitive descriptions of the late effects of radiation in humans. For this reason, the entire world relies heavily on these data to set radiation standards. As vital as the study results are, they still represent primarily the effects of radiation on older survivors. Another decade or two should correct this deficiency and allow us to measure definitively the human risk of heritable mutation from radiation. We look to the worldwide radiation and risk community as well as to the survivors who have contributed so much to what has been done already to accomplish this goal.

The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in retrospect

For 50 years, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) and its successor, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), have conducted epidemiological and genetic studies of the survivors of the atomic bombs and of their children. This research program has provided the primary basis for radiation health standards. Both ABCC (1947–1975) and RERF (1975 to date) have been a joint enterprise of the United States (through the National Academy of Sciences) and of Japan. ABCC began in devastated, occupied Japan. Its mission had to be defined and refined. Early research revealed the urgent need for long term study. In 1946, a Directive of President Truman enjoined the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to develop the program. By 1950, ABCC staff exceeded 1,000, and clinical and genetic studies were underway. Budgetary difficulties and other problems almost forced closure in 1953. In 1955, the Francis Report led to a unified epidemiological study. Much progress was made in the next decade, but changing times required founding of a binational nonprofit organization (RERF) with equal participation by Japan and the United States. New programs have been developed and existing ones have been extended in what is the longest continuing health survey ever undertaken.

Statistical analysis of the medical effects of the atomic bombs : from the report of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan /

Supplement to National nuclear energy ser., Div. 8, v. 8.

Hematological investigation of the atomic bomb sufferers in Hiroshima and Nagasaki City /

"Kyoto University."

Public reaction to the atomic bomb and world affairs; a nation-wide survey of attitudes and information.

Cover title.

The atomic bomb,

"Special edition."

New advances in radiation biology.

Current understanding of risk associated with low-dose radiation exposure has for many years been embedded in the linear-no-threshold (LNT) approach, based on simple extrapolation from the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Radiation biology research has supported the LNT approach although much of this has been limited to relatively high-dose studies. Recently, with new advances for studying effects of low-dose exposure in experimental models and advances in molecular and cellular biology, a range of new effects of biological responses to radiation has been observed. These include genomic instability, adaptive responses and bystander effects. Most have one feature in common in that they are observed at low doses and suggest significant non-linear responses. These new observations pose a significant challenge to our understanding of low-dose exposure and require further study to elucidate mechanisms and determine their relevance.

Non-targeted effects of ionising radiation-Implications for low dose risk

Non-DNA targeted effects of ionising radiation, which include genomic instability, and a variety of bystander effects including abscopal effects and bystander mediated adaptive response, have raised concerns about the magnitude of low-dose radiation risk. Genomic instability, bystander effects and adaptive responses are powered by fundamental, but not clearly understood systems that maintain tissue homeostasis. Despite excellent research in this field by various groups, there are still gaps in our understandfng of the likely mechanisms associated with non-DNA targeted effects, particularly with respect to systemic (human health) consequences at low and intermediate doses of ionising radiation. Other outstanding questions include links between the different non-targeted responses and the variations. in response observed between individuals and cell lines, possibly a function of genetic background. Furthermore, it is still not known what the initial target and early interactions in cells are that give rise to non-targeted responses in neighbouring or descendant cells. This paper provides a commentary on the current state of the field as a result of the non-targeted effects of ionising radiation (NOTE) Integrated Project funded by the European Union. Here we critically examine the evidence for non-targeted effects, discuss apparently contradictory results and consider implications for low-dose radiation health effects. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Information bias and lifetime mortality risks of radiation-induced cancer

Additive and multiplicative models of relative risk were used to measure the effect of cancer misclassification and DS86 random errors on lifetime risk projections in the Life Span Study (LSS) of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors. The true number of cancer deaths in each stratum of the cancer mortality cross-classification was estimated using sufficient statistics from the EM algorithm. Average survivor doses in the strata were corrected for DS86 random error ($\sigma$ = 0.45) by use of reduction factors. Poisson regression was used to model the corrected and uncorrected mortality rates with covariates for age at-time-of-bombing, age at-time-of-death and gender. Excess risks were in good agreement with risks in RERF Report 11 (Part 2) and the BEIR-V report. Bias due to DS86 random error typically ranged from $-$15% to $-$30% for both sexes, and all sites and models. The total bias, including diagnostic misclassification, of excess risk of nonleukemia for exposure to 1 Sv from age 18 to 65 under the non-constant relative projection model was $-$37.1% for males and $-$23.3% for females. Total excess risks of leukemia under the relative projection model were biased $-$27.1% for males and $-$43.4% for females. Thus, nonleukemia risks for 1 Sv from ages 18 to 85 (DRREF = 2) increased from 1.91%/Sv to 2.68%/Sv among males and from 3.23%/Sv to 4.02%/Sv among females. Leukemia excess risks increased from 0.87%/Sv to 1.10%/Sv among males and from 0.73%/Sv to 1.04%/Sv among females. Bias was dependent on the gender, site, correction method, exposure profile and projection model considered. Future studies that use LSS data for U.S. nuclear workers may be downwardly biased if lifetime risk projections are not adjusted for random and systematic errors. (Supported by U.S. NRC Grant NRC-04-091-02.) ^

MS#73 William C. Moloney, M.D., papers; 1952-1954

Dr. Moloney kept a personal journal, with photographs, for much of his two years with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan. Along with other scientists, he studied the biological and medical effects of ionized radiation on the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. In January of 1986, Dr. Moloney donated his journal, correspondence and diary pages to the Harris County Medical Archive, whose collections were later incorporated into the Texas Medical Center Library. Dr. Moloney's journal is in relatively good shape containing a mix of handwritten notes and comments, news-clippings, photos, and ephemera. The journal is an important record of personal impressions, thoughts and details of events during a pivotal time in Japan. This 192-pagee journal gives new insights into the work of the ABCC and into the people who participated in that work. The journal covers the period from April 1952 to February 1954. In these documents, Moloney records his struggles with understanding the Japanese culture, his frustration at not being allowed to treat the survivors he studied, and his concerns, fears, hopes and revelations as he dealt with the bombing survivors and their children. The original papers are open for research at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center in the TMC Library in Houston.

Atomic energy in war and peace,

Mode of access: Internet.

Atomic warfare defense. Final draft. Rev. 1 July 1956.

Loose-leaf.

Baile dos Horrores: A presença do grotesco e do horror num baile de carnaval do Rio de Janeiro

O trabalho aborda o baile dos Horrores, que acontecia no período pré-carnavalesco do Clube Magnatas de Futebol de Salão localizado na Rua General Belford no bairro do Rocha, subúrbio do Rio de Janeiro, de 1960 a 1988. Sua característica marcante foi o horror levado às últimas conseqüências, chamando a atenção da imprensa e provocavam mal estar em pessoas mais sensíveis. A dissertação busca discutir os motivos da presença desses elementos numa festa onde a alegria predomina. Procuramos, desse modo, associar o baile a um período do século XX em que as tensões ocasionadas por uma série de fatores (como a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a Guerra Fria e a Guerra do Vietnã, por exemplo) causavam os mais diversos temores com elementos nunca antes visto, como a bomba atômica, iniciando assim novo período onde as metamorfoses seguiam o caminho do terror. A ciência, por sua vez, aceleraria processos que teriam influencia em todos os campos da produção humana, inclusive, ou principalmente, nas artes

Imaginative Mislocation: Hiroshima’s Genbaku Dome, Ground Zero of the Twentieth Century

The controversy that erupted in March over the publication of Charles Pellegrino’s account of the atomic bombings of Japan, The Last Train from Hiroshima, suggests that the historical legacy of the first military use of atomic weaponry is still fiercely contested in the USA. The spat is merely the latest conflict in a long war over the significance of the bombings, which resurfaces with each new book, exhibition or programme that appears. When the ruins of the Genbaku (Atomic Bomb) Dome – formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall – were nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, the United States objected on the basis of concerns over a ‘lack of historical perspective’, arguing that the ‘events antecedent to the United States’ use of atomic weapons to end World War II are key to understanding the tragedy of Hiroshima’. The appeal to historical facts by both US diplomats and, more recently, military veterans contrasts with the dehistoricized emphasis of other Western cultural responses to Hiroshima. But what both kinds of reception share is an occlusion of the prehistory of capitalist liberalism, colonialism and imperialism which produces Japanese modernity,a prehistory which is itself built into the Genbaku Dome’s concrete structure, and an afterlife of nuclear pacification which produces the global context of terrorism as the continuation of war by other means.