Fallout Memory Trajectories at Semipalatinsk 207
Obninsk. 55 Today’s Scientific Institute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology
in Semey is the successor institute of the code-named “brucellosis hospital”:
the “Dispensary no. 4.” This unit was overseen by the Institute for Biophysics
in Moscow and established for the purpose of studying radiation effects in
the surroundings of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Founded in 1959, it
mainly followed up on the health status of exposed people in settlements
exposed to fallout, focusing on particular in cancer incidence and mortality
in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to cross-sectional studies and cohort
study, they also set up a program on cytogenetics. Analyzing blood samples
of people living in exposed areas, radiation biologists compared the counts of
chromosome aberrations, such as dicentrics and rings, using the method of
karyotyping (the examination of chromosomes under the microscope) in the
1970s. Scientists examined these alterations in the sense of an effect marker,
described as a clinical observation of radiation effects, comparing rates in the
exposed areas with rates in areas outside known fallout. 56
Controversies during the 1990s revolved around questions of dosimetry, a
multidisciplinary research field that deals with the reconstruction of exposure. Scientists distinguish between radiation qualities and pathways: radiation qualities refers to alpha, beta, gamma radiation – each having different
biological characteristics and effects on tissue and which radiation qualities
are present depends on the radionuclide composition of fallout and residual radioactivity as well as on the decay chains. Pathways can be external
radiation (whole body exposure) and internal exposure due to ingested or
inhaled radionuclides. After radiation accidents, particular significance has
been given, for instance, to radioiodine, which accumulates in the thyroid
gland, but also to much longer-lived strontium-90 which, like radium, mimics calcium and collects in bones, where it remains for years, leading to irradiation of bone marrow. Methods for dose reconstruction – which examine
and quantify radiation exposure – include physical, chemical, and biological
techniques. Biodosimetry has become increasingly important in determining radiation dose after nuclear accidents. In epidemiological risk assessment
projects, biodosimetrists used cytogenetic techniques to trace chromosomal
alterations in human blood cells in order to quantify radiation dose at the
individual level. Hence, this measurement setting became a biological memory device registering past exposure within the very human body. 57
Given that there is sufficient stability of the aberrations over time – which
for most markers are only a few months – these are used to confirm and
even quantify radiation exposure. In these configurations, the human body
is rendered not only as “at risk” due to fallout, but as a dosimetric memory
in which radiation inscribes itself, similar to the dosimeter device carried by
nuclear workers. Repurposed as memory work for “biodosimetry,” chromosome aberrations became a human cellular that would be recognized as proof
of exposure. Whether the marker is conceived of as a clinical marker of effect
or whether it is a tool for dose estimation – seems to perhaps be a technical
detail, but this small shift is relating fallout matters in a very different way.
Obninsk. 55 Today’s Scientific Institute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology
in Semey is the successor institute of the code-named “brucellosis hospital”:
the “Dispensary no. 4.” This unit was overseen by the Institute for Biophysics
in Moscow and established for the purpose of studying radiation effects in
the surroundings of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Founded in 1959, it
mainly followed up on the health status of exposed people in settlements
exposed to fallout, focusing on particular in cancer incidence and mortality
in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to cross-sectional studies and cohort
study, they also set up a program on cytogenetics. Analyzing blood samples
of people living in exposed areas, radiation biologists compared the counts of
chromosome aberrations, such as dicentrics and rings, using the method of
karyotyping (the examination of chromosomes under the microscope) in the
1970s. Scientists examined these alterations in the sense of an effect marker,
described as a clinical observation of radiation effects, comparing rates in the
exposed areas with rates in areas outside known fallout. 56
Controversies during the 1990s revolved around questions of dosimetry, a
multidisciplinary research field that deals with the reconstruction of exposure. Scientists distinguish between radiation qualities and pathways: radiation qualities refers to alpha, beta, gamma radiation – each having different
biological characteristics and effects on tissue and which radiation qualities
are present depends on the radionuclide composition of fallout and residual radioactivity as well as on the decay chains. Pathways can be external
radiation (whole body exposure) and internal exposure due to ingested or
inhaled radionuclides. After radiation accidents, particular significance has
been given, for instance, to radioiodine, which accumulates in the thyroid
gland, but also to much longer-lived strontium-90 which, like radium, mimics calcium and collects in bones, where it remains for years, leading to irradiation of bone marrow. Methods for dose reconstruction – which examine
and quantify radiation exposure – include physical, chemical, and biological
techniques. Biodosimetry has become increasingly important in determining radiation dose after nuclear accidents. In epidemiological risk assessment
projects, biodosimetrists used cytogenetic techniques to trace chromosomal
alterations in human blood cells in order to quantify radiation dose at the
individual level. Hence, this measurement setting became a biological memory device registering past exposure within the very human body. 57
Given that there is sufficient stability of the aberrations over time – which
for most markers are only a few months – these are used to confirm and
even quantify radiation exposure. In these configurations, the human body
is rendered not only as “at risk” due to fallout, but as a dosimetric memory
in which radiation inscribes itself, similar to the dosimeter device carried by
nuclear workers. Repurposed as memory work for “biodosimetry,” chromosome aberrations became a human cellular that would be recognized as proof
of exposure. Whether the marker is conceived of as a clinical marker of effect
or whether it is a tool for dose estimation – seems to perhaps be a technical
detail, but this small shift is relating fallout matters in a very different way.