AN OVERVIEW

                     HAZARDS OF LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVITY

                              by Sara Shannon
                            --------------------
                                Winter, 1998

          --------------------------------------------------------

          Low level radioactivity includes the on-going amount of
           radiation released from the everyday operation of the
          world's 433 nuclear power plants, plus leaks and accidents.

          --------------------------------------------------------

   (1)     INFERTILITY           Radiation causes infertility. The global
                                 fertility rate has dropped nearly half
                                 since 1955.

   (2)     WEAKENED IMMUNE       Radiation weakens the immune system. A
           SYSTEM                hundred nation study on quality of
                                 health found the United States was
                                 number one in 1943. By 1992, the United
                                 States was number 100, according to a
                                 U.S. Public Health Statistics Report.
                                 Globally health is deteriorating with
                                 incidence of cancer, heart, allergies
                                 and infectious diseases increasing.

   (3)     MUTATED VIRUS AND     Even at low levels radiation may
           BACTERIA              increase mutations of bacteria and
                                 virus. Mutations are causing the
                                 appearance of new diseases such as Reyes
                                 Syndrome, Legionnaire's Disease and Lyme
                                 Disease.

   (4)     LOSS OF OXYGEN        The percentage of oxygen in the air is
           GLOBALLY              down to about 19 percent. The expected
                                 amount is 21 percent of oxygen. Oxygen
                                 is formed by trees and plankton. Trees
                                 and plankton are killed by radiation.

   (5)     OZONE BREAKDOWN       Large-scale breakdown of the protective
                                 ozone layer in the stratosphere was
                                 initiated in 1958 by high atmosphere
                                 bomb tests, and continues due to
                                 releases from power plants and
                                 reprocessing plants. Radioactive
                                 Krypton-85 goes to the stratosphere
                                 where it greatly enhances CFC ozone
                                 damage.

   (6)     SOLUTIONS             Clean, renewable energies: solar,
                                 thermal, photovoltaic, wind, biomass,
                                 hydro and other renewable technologies.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------



     (1)     INFERTILITY

     The global fertility rate has dropped by nearly half since 1955!
     The cumulative effects of radiation-caused infertility raise the
     possibility of gradual human extinction. We may be concerned about
     the Pentagon backed globalization of trade, but there are more
     important worries. This trade scenario to sell more goods is built
     on the quicksand assumption that there will continue to be
     consumers.

     Projected sales and quarterly growth are predicated on one
     variable that can no longer be counted on -- living consumers.
     Escalating infertility in the United States has forced couples to
     turn to the fast emerging new world of assisted reproduction and
     pre-made embryos in ever-growing numbers.

     A front page New York Times article of November 23, 1997, "Clinics
     Selling Embryos Made for Adoption" explains "Anguished infertile
     couples are more than willing to pay for whatever infertility
     clinics can offer."

     Fear of the "population bomb" of the 1960's has turned into the
     "birth dearth" of the 1990's.

     The so-called replacement rate is 2.1 children, which is needed to
     keep the population from falling. The current fertility rate in
     the developed nations is 1.6 children per woman. In the less
     developed countries it is now 3 and falling.

     United States rates are below replacement for the last 25 years.
     From 1950 to 1955 the global fertility rate was 5. Today the total
     fertility rate is 2.8.

     According to a 1996 United Nations report, "World Population
     prospects: The 1996 Revision," fifty one nations with 44 percent
     of the world's people are now at, or below the replacement
     requirements.

     Dr. John Gofman, an eminent scientist, medical doctor and eloquent
     spokesman against the hazards of nuclear power, explained back in
     the 1970's, in his book Population Control Through Nuclear
     Pollution, "that the worry about over-population would become a
     non-worry due to radioactivity."

     This is confirmed in the decline in fertility among those born at
     the time of atmospheric bomb testing (1955-1963) see chart on next
     page.

     Dr. Rosalie Bertell, mathematician, epidemiologist and President
     of International Institute of Concern for Public Health has been
     researching infertility for some years and feels it is the
     "cutting edge" of radiation health damage, surpassing immune
     damage in the extent of its implications, as it raises the
     possibility of human extinction.

     In response to questions on the status of this research, Dr.
     Rosalie Bertell writes in a personal correspondence (November
     1997): "We found in Kerala, India, that when comparing people
     matched for socioeconomic status, class, religion, occupation and
     life style, those living on the high radiation background (300 to
     3000 mrad per year) had twice the rate of couples who want
     children but are unable to have children, than we found for those
     living on the normal background soil (below 300 mrad per year).
     This has been released in press statements but it is not
     published. You will have to take my word for it."

     The Baby Boomers are the group born in the USA after the war, the
     years 1945 through 1963, and these are the years of atmospheric
     bomb testing as well as the start of the nuclear power industry.
     They show a high rate of immune related diseases and also an
     increasing rate of infertility. Data from the U.S. Public Health
     Service illustrate the difference between fertility in the Baby
     Boomers and those who are called Pre-Baby Boomers:

          Percent Women Infertile, by Age
          U.S. 1965 and 1976

                                Percent     Percent
                                Infertile   Infertile   Percent
                                in 1965     in 1976     Change
          Baby Boomers
          Age 15-19              0.6         2.0        +1.4
          Age 20-24              3.4         5.6        +2.2
          Age 25-29              6.1         8.4        +2.3

          Pre-Baby Boomers
          Age 30-34             10.8         9.5        -1.3
          Age 35-39             13.4        11.4        -2.0
          Age 40-44             18.5        14.6        -3.9

          (Reproductive Impairments Among Married Couples United
          States U.S. Public Health Service, Washington, D.C.,
          December 1982)

     Two surveys, in 1965 and 1976, show that the percent of
     infertility of the baby boomers increased, and the percent of
     infertility of the pre-baby boomers born before bomb testing and
     nuclear power, decreased.



     (2)     WEAKENED IMMUNITY

     On the correlation between low dose radiation and weakened
     immunity, radiation physicist, Dr. Ernest Sternglass, states in a
     1986 article: "It appears that perhaps the most serious
     unanticipated effects of fallout is long-term, persistent immune
     deficiency." And he clarifies, "It can weaken the immune defenses
     of the body at very low total doses leading to unexpectedly large
     increases in infectious diseases and cancers." (Int. J. Biosocial
     Res., July 1986, p. 18)

     Initially zealous misrepresentation of the facts led the public to
     understand that small amounts of radiation were of no special
     concern. Yet these low levels are exactly the cause of weak
     immunity and resulting diseases.

     Authorities couldn't ignore emerging data and in December 1989,
     the government sponsored National Academy of Sciences stated in a
     report titled Biological Effects of Radiation that there was no
     safe level of radiation.

     Low protracted doses of radiation cause physiological damage
     through the formation of free radicals. A free radical is a
     molecule with an imbalance in electrons which can destabilize
     other molecules resulting in cellular damage and disease.

     In high, short doses like the Hiroshima bomb blast, radiation
     primarily causes direct damage to the nucleus of cells where the
     genes are located that control the functioning of the cell. In
     contrast, low doses acting continuously over time produce their
     damage indirectly through the generation of free radicals that
     destroy cell-membranes, hundreds to thousands of times more
     efficiently than might be expected in calculations related to
     high-dose damage. So the everyday amount of radiation that is
     released as part of the normal operation of the world's 400
     nuclear power plants is a very grave concern. Nuclear power plants
     must have releases in order to function, and these releases, even
     though they may be partially filtered, allow radiation to go into
     our air and drinking water, and onto farmland and into our food.

     The everyday releases of low-level radioactivity by nuclear power
     plants has been found to cause several kinds of health damage
     including premature births, congenital defects, infant mortality,
     mental retardation, heart ailments, arthritis, diabetes,
     allergies, asthma, cancer, genetic damage and chronic fatigue
     syndrome. It has been linked to previously unknown infectious
     diseases, and the resurgence of old ones by damaging the
     developing white blood cells originating in the bone marrow and
     thus weakening the immune system.

     Dr. Sternglass conjectures what could happen: "With countless
     thousands of persons having a weaker and weaker immune system as
     the result of increasing radioactive contamination of the air and
     food chain, an AIDS mutation-like disease could become a new Black
     Plague. It's not inconceivable that entire nations could be
     decimated." (Interview in National Catholic Reporter, October 16,
     1997)



     (3)     MUTATED BACTERIA AND VIRUS

     It is well known that radiation can cause mutations in bacteria
     and viruses. Andrei Sakharov, the famous Russian physicist,
     described in his 1992 Memoirs that even at low levels radiation
     could increase mutations of bacteria and viruses. His predictions
     which were originally made in 1958, have come true and we are
     seeing new ailments such as Reyes Syndrome which first appeared in
     1963, and Legionnaire's Disease which is cased by a bacteria that
     was not threatening prior to 1976. AIDS may be related to a
     mutated virus combined with a weakened immunity in a generation
     born after the first nuclear weapons were detonated.

     Of particular interest is Lyme Disease which first appeared in
     1975 near the Millstone and Haddam Neck nuclear power plants in
     Connecticut. Dr. Jay Gould in Deadly Deceit (1990, Four Walls
     Eight Windows) describes: "In 1975 there were 59 cases of Lyme
     Disease recorded; in 1985 the number increased to 863, mainly in
     the two counties of Middlesex and New London, CT near the
     Millstone Nuclear Power Plant. Just as increases in cancer may be
     linked to the huge radiation release from Millstone in 1975, so
     too may be the tick-borne Lyme Disease epidemic. The Lyme Disease
     is carried by a spirochete that had not been as harmful to humans
     prior to 1975. It is well known that radiation can cause mutations
     in bacteria. The enormous 1975 Millstone radiation release may
     have caused just such a mutation in the tick-borne spirochete." So
     we have a double challenge -- the weaker immune system, and the
     new diseases resulting from mutated pathogens.

     Dr. Ernest Sternglass explains:

          "When the radiation from such isotopes as strontium-89
          and 90 in the bone marrow mutates an existing virus that
          invades the T-cells of the immune system and kills them
          in the process of replication, the stage is set for the
          complete collapse of the immune defenses, and resulting
          death from opportunistic infections or cancer." ("The
          Implications of Chernobyl for Human Health",
          International Journal of Biosocial Research, p. 19, July
          1986)



     (4)     LOSS OF OXYGEN GLOBALLY

     Walter Russell, a visionary artist and scientist, predicted in his
     book Atomic Suicide? published in 1957 that due to man-made
     radioactivity we would experience a loss of oxygen in the air that
     we breathe. In a similar way to the predictions of Andrei Sakharov
     in the 1950's, Walter Russell's foresight is now coming true. Our
     current oxygen resources are low. The percentage of oxygen in the
     air is down to about 19 percent. (BioTech News 1997) The expected
     amount is 21 percent oxygen. Some experts say that we may have
     originally evolved in an atmosphere of 38 percent oxygen. But now,
     due to the loss of forests and ocean plankton, our two sources of
     oxygen production, measurements of oxygen as low as 12 percent and
     15 percent have been made in heavily industrialized areas. This
     oxygen-depleted condition is a contributing cause of the
     generalized lack of well-being that many are experiencing. And it
     does not look good for the future. We need oxygen to live!

     Trees and green plants provide about half, and plankton provide
     the other half of our oxygen. Phytoplankton, which are the base of
     the marine food chain, is declining. Various studies confirm this:
     plankton in parts of the Antarctic Ocean is declining up to 12
     percent. (S. Weiler. Testimony to Senate Commerce Committee,
     November 15, 1991)

     Trees absorb radioactive carbon-14 in place of stable forms of
     carbon and in this way they are gradually killed. The book, The
     Petkau Effect, by Ralph Graeub tells how radioactivity has harmed
     trees and forests: "It is assumed that the decisive physiological
     damage resulting in current forest death must have begun during
     the 1950's. This is depicted in a reduction in density and width
     of tree rings, and in reduced growth, which is true in the
     Northern Hemisphere and in the Himalayas.... Neither aging,
     location, nor climate can be considered as the possible sole cause
     of damage.... The growth ring of a tree shows exactly what effects
     the tree has experienced, both in terms of time and
     seriousness.... During the 1950's and 1960's, there must have been
     a global wave of air pollution which caused the initial damage."

     The author speculates that it could not be just the usual
     chemicals which are so damaging the trees. And he explains that
     these trees are mainly within the 30th to 60th parallels of
     northern latitude. "This zone contains the most nuclear power
     plants -- over 300 -- and almost all nuclear reprocessing centers.
     Also, the vast majority of nuclear weapons tests occurred in this
     area."



     (5)     OZONE BREAKDOWN

     The protective layer of ozone around the Earth filters solar and
     cosmic rays from reaching our planet. Ozone surrounds the Earth in
     a layer between six and thirty miles above sea level. It is formed
     when light rays strike molecules of oxygen, which is 02, and cause
     them to break into two separate oxygen atoms, or 0 and 0. An atom
     of oxygen then combines with a molecule of oxygen and forms ozone
     which is 03. It breaks down again and then recombines again. And
     so on; unless it is interfered with.

     August 1954

     "It will not take many years to utterly destroy the encircling
     protective walls which surround this planet and protect the Earth
     from burning up by the sun's hot rays."
     (Walter Russell, Newsletter of the University of Science and
     Philosophy)

     1957

     Walter Russell publishes his book Atomic Suicide? whose principle
     message is that the development of the nuclear weaponry and
     nuclear industry, if it continues, will eventually destroy the
     planet's oxygen.

          "The element of surprise which could delay the discovery
          of the great danger, and thus allow more plutonium piles
          to come into existence, is the fact that scientists are
          looking near the ground for fallout dangers. The
          greatest radioactive dangers are accumulating from eight
          to twelve miles up in the stratosphere. The upper
          atmosphere is already charged with death-dealing
          radioactivity, for which it has not yet sent us the
          bill. It is slowly coming and we will have to pay for it
          in another century, even if atomic energy plants ceased
          today." (Atomic Suicide?, p. 18)

     Later in the book he predicts that these effects of radiation
     would not be noticed "until the late seventies".

     1982 and 1984

     Two German reports cite that radioactive krypton, which is
     released in the daily operation of nuclear plants and through the
     reprocessing of used reactor fuel elements, is affecting the
     distribution of the electric fields in the atmosphere.

     1984

     A team of British scientists find an ozone hole over the Antarctic
     larger than the Continental U.S.

     1987

     The ozone hole is twice as large as the U.S. It is discovered that
     ozone is not diminishing just over the south pole but globally.

     March 1988

     The ozone hole makes headlines.

     1987-88

     The consensus of opinion says that various man-made chemicals are
     the sole cause of ozone breakdown; especially compounds of
     chlorine (CFC's) and bromine (halon fire extinguishers) and a lot
     of talk about hair spray and refrigerators. A leading authority on
     the ozone problem, NASA's Dr. Robert Watson admitted many
     scientists were "baffled" by findings of ozone depletion even in
     areas where CFC's action was negligible. He called the extent of
     the hole's growth "absolutely unexpected".

     April 6, 1989

     "Scientists reported yesterday that for the first time they have
     detected an increase in ``biologically relevant'' levels of
     ultraviolet radiation reaching the ground as a result of the ozone
     hole over the Antarctica. This is the first indication that the
     depletion of ozone is beginning to cause the potentially harmful
     effect that has long been predicted." (The Washington Post)

     Late 1990

     University of California researchers publish their findings that
     phytoplankton are reproducing less profusely than before.
     Observing the plankton in the Belingshausen Sea they found that
     increased UV appears to be suppressing the phytoplankton's
     productivity by 6 to 12%.

     1992

     Both NASA and the World Meteorological Society reported 10 to 25
     percent ozone depletion measured over the northern United States,
     Canada, Europe and the Antarctica (ozone hole being three times
     the size of the United States).

     1994

     An article in a German journal Strahlentelex (March 3, 1994)
     explains that the nuclear industry is responsible for the ozone
     hole. The authors, Giebel and Sternglass explains that radioactive
     gases like krypton-85 from nuclear plants and from the nuclear
     fuel recycling plants go up to the stratosphere where they create
     water droplets from the moisture which in turn form ice crystals
     on the surface of which the destruction of the ozone by the
     fluorhydrocarbons is greatly accelerated.

     A quote from this article explains:

          "The nuclear industry is responsible for the ozone hole.
          Radioactive gases like Krypton-85 appear in increasing
          amounts due to the bomb tests, releases and accidents at
          nuclear reactors and especially from the nuclear fuel
          recycling plants. Krypton-85 goes up to the stratosphere
          where it creates ice crystals which catalytically
          enhance the destruction of ozone by the
          fluorhydrocarbons."

          Note: Krypton-85 has a half-life of 10.7 years and a
          whole life of 217 years.

     "The ozone layer, if it disappears, disappears for all of us."
     (Isaac Asimov)

     1994-95

     Hawaii reached its lowest level of ozone on record. The U.S.
     National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a 40%
     increase in dangerous ultraviolet light on the Big Island.

     March 1996

     The World Meteorological Agency reports "the extremely worrying"
     development of an unprecedented 45 percent ozone thinning over
     Greenland, Scandinavia and Western Siberia.

     Summer 1997

     Research from the Antarctic Marine Living Resources program find
     "krill abundance in the Antarctic Peninsula region is down 60 to
     90 percent since the early 1980's".



     (6)     SOLUTIONS

     The other side of technology can save us. We could shift from
     polluting energy sources. All that is required is scientific and
     financial support for the non-polluting energy waiting in the
     wings to end our reliance on nuclear energy and oil and coal.
     Although the price of solar energy has declined over the last few
     years, how could it be competitive with the enormous monetary
     support nuclear power has had in the form of subsidies, tax breaks
     and insurance coverage by the government?

     The United States spends nearly $60 billion a year to defend the
     $30 billion of oil we extract in the Persian Gulf area. This price
     is too high, especially the human suffering and expenses from
     thousands of our Gulf War soldiers brutally sick with Gulf War
     Syndrome are factored in.

     Let's use solar panels and electric vehicles to cancel out this
     dollar extravangaza. Surely $60 billion could help renewable
     energies get out to the public. Solar, thermal, photovoltaic,
     wind, biomass, hydro, earth energy and other benign renewable
     technologies are ready and waiting. Working models exist which
     could be refined and rapidly spread around the world at affordable
     cost. Let technology be put to some use that makes sense!

     In searching for new energy sources, some inventors have revealed
     that space is filled with motion -- the quantum fluctuations
     within the atom and between the stars -- and that this energy
     could be converted into electricity. Orthodox scientists have
     overlooked the vacuum of space and that it might be utilized for
     energy because they have not realized it consists of pure massless
     charge.

     Instead of being blinded by traditional ideas, let us look into
     the spectrum of energy sources waiting to be harnessed to make
     usable physical energy.

     Once we install clean energies, radioactive waste remains a vast
     challenge. United States' plans to transport radioactive waste in
     thousands of shipments across the country to Nevada and to
     deregulate radioactive waste and use it in commercial products do
     not make sense! There are other possible solutions. One energy
     technology that might offer hope is transmutation. Traditional
     science says this is not possible. However, in recent years,
     experiments by certain labs have been replicated and several
     patents granted.

     Transmutation is, in this application, used to describe the
     conversion of radioactive elements into other radioactive elements
     with shorter life spans, or into non-radioactive elements. In some
     cases the process may change the radioactive element into another
     element with a shorter half-life, so that the necessary storage
     time is reduced. In other cases the element itself would be
     changed.

     If all nuclear power production were stopped and scientists
     switched over to study the clean-up, and the very available
     renewable energies were brought into place, we might have a chance
     to save the Earth as a habitat for Life.

     Of course, we will have to re-mineralize the soil, quadruple plant
     life for absorbing CO2 and making oxygen, and stop using meat as a
     protein source because it requires the abuse of so much land and
     water.

     Congress of the United States has served the corporate gang since
     the mid-1970's, has exploited Nature and humans, impoverished the
     people who are in a state of biological degeneration, and ruined
     the land with the huge loss of topsoil, bankrupted the government
     and allowed the perpetration of radioactive contamination all over
     the Earth.

     If enough people move beyond denial and disinformation, if enough
     people move beyond rage and resentment, if enough people wake up,
     unite and take action -- then we can affect changes.

     Claim your right to clean water and air and food. Our future is a
     matter of choice. We each have a role to play.

     TECHNOLOGY'S CURSE Diet for the Atomic Age by Sara Shannon, the
     definitive book on radiation protection, 355 pages with 18 pages
     of references, is available from www.Earthpulse.com or telephone
     888/690-1277.

     Sara Shannon
     POB 20570
     Tompkins Station
     New York NY 10009