375 



a hundried. times more sensitive tlian adults to tlie carcinogenic effects of 

 radiation. 



As with DDT, the direct effects on man may prove to be less important than the 

 indirect ecological impact due to eradication of vulnerable species. Among the 

 disastrous effects of DDT, discovered many years after it was pronounced a 

 safe insecticide, are the fragility it induces in some birds' eggs, such as the 

 pelican's which in certain areas are now threatened with extinction. The Soviet 

 biologist Polikarpov has. observed that extremely low concentrations of strontium- 

 90 cause abnormalities, especially in the spinal cords, of developing fish eggs. 

 Almost all fish eggs float in the upper five centimeters of sea water, where they are 

 vulnerable to fallout and industrial discharge (1). Polikarpov predicts that one 

 result of radioactive pollution will be to shift the ecological balance from more 

 radiosensitive species like fish to less sensitive species like plants. Whether or 

 not some commercial species of fish will be wiped out by radiation, as this line 

 of research suggests, the possibility itself illustrates, in analogy with DDT, 

 that trace amounts of pollutants can cause unexpected catastrophes by breaking a 

 weak link of the ecological chain. 



Radiation does literally break a link in the helical chain that transmits genetic 

 information, causing abnormalities and depth in descendants. These effects, while 

 they occur at the lowest levels of radiation, may not become apparent for several 

 generations. Therefore some of the most serious delayed consequences of radio- 

 active pollution may not appear for ten to fifty years in affected species, which 

 includes all species on earth. It can be argued that some mutations are useful, 

 that improved strains of food plants have been produced by deliberate irradia- 

 tion of seeds, that the process of evolution may ultimately depend on radiation- 

 induced mutations (7). But the ratio of harmful to useful mutations is at least a 

 million to one, so radioactive pollution constitutes genetic experimentation on a 

 global scale, with unpredictable consequences to all life on earth. 



I am very much disturbed by the massive advertising campaign which has 

 been launched by power companies in the United States, aimed at convincing 

 the public that nuclear power is clean, virtually free of radiation, good for the 

 environment, and necessary to meet the power demands which their advertising 

 has helped to create. The parallel with the cigarette companies, which for years 

 made unsupported health claims for their products, and have persisted in their 

 promotional efforts despite the proved carcinogenic and other disease-inducing 

 results of smoking, are only too striking. It seems to me grossly irresponsible to 

 substitute the techniques of mass persuasion for the scientific investigation and 

 careful search for answers which only many years of experience and observa- 

 tion will assure. In the meantime, restraint and careful planning in nuclear ex- 

 ploitation of the oceans, and worldwide agreements limiting radioactive pollution, 

 are urgently needed. 



References 



(1) Polikarpov, GG, "Radioecology of Aquatic Organisms," Reinhold, 1966. 



(2) Mawson, CA, "Management of Radioactive Wastes," Van Nostrand, 1965. 



(3) Letavet, AA and Kurlandskaya, EB, Eds., "The Toxicology of Radio- 

 active Substances, vol. 5, Zinc-65," Pergamon Press, 1970. 



(4) Schubert, J and Lapp, RE, "Global Radiation Limits," Bull. Atomic 

 Scientists 14r-23, January 1958. 



(5) Gofman, JW and Tamplin, AR, "Radiation, Cancer and Environmental 

 Health," Hospital Practice, p. 71, October 1970. 



(6) Stewart, Alice and Kneale, GW, "Radiation dose effects in relation to 

 obstetric x-rays and childhood cancers." The Lancet 1 : 1185, June 6. 1970. 



(7) Schultz, V et al., Eds., "Radioecology," Reinhold, 1961. 



Radioactive Pollution of the Seas — Jerold M. Lowenstein, Associate Clinical 

 Professor of Medicine, Radioactivity Research Center, Univerisity of Cali- 

 fornia, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. Member, Board of Directors, Oceanic 

 Society— Presented on July 1, 1970, at the International Convocation, Baeem 

 in Maribus, Malta 



The first decade of intense exploitation of nuclear power, during which there 

 will be a ten-fold increase in production of radioactive wastes, begins with no in- 

 ternational agreements regarding the disposal of these wastes into the seas, 

 wth inadequate but ominous data regarding their effects on aquatic organisms, 

 and with mounting evidence that the current permissible radiation doses in man 



