!
laboratory levels as low as 3 ppb reduced the growth and reproduction rates
of certain crustaceans. Foster Mayer, ]r., and colleagues at the laboratory
wrote:
Although phthalate esters cannot be impugned as an environmental hazard,
their subtle effects on aquatic organisms resulting from long—term, subacute
exposures
is unknown
.
.
.
there are indications that these compounds can be
detrimental to aquatic organisms at low chronic concentrations.[lô]
The biological concentration of these various long—lived contaminants
def1es the concept of dilution upon
which much of waste disposal engineering
rests. Thus, cesium 137 discharged from the Zion Nuclear Power Station
north of Chicago, although diluted in the cooling water discharge, will be
concentrated in vegetation watered by Lake Michigan and further concen—
trated in the livestock feeding on that vegetation. Minute quantities of cesium
137 in the water will be concentrated by some 9500 times in the bodies of
sunfish and by some 3000 times in the bodies of carp [17]. In any event, the
radioactive potential of the material will be passed on to man at some point
in the food chain even though the level of radioactivity in his drinking water
is kept very low. Immediate damage to the human body from ionizing radiation received in this way is probably not a threat; cumulative damage—such
as the inducement of cancer over a long period of time or genetic effects that
will affect some human offspring in one way or another—is a possibility that
must be weighed against the benets of nuclear power. With regard to gen—
etic eects, of radiation, the authors of the definitive book Water Quality
C7iteria, prepared for the California Water Quality Control Board, said:
For genetic effects, however, there appears to be no possible threshold dose
below which some effect may not occur. Any amount of radiation, no matter
how small, is bound to produce some mutations. Once completed, mutations
are
1rreversible and almost all mutations are deleterious. Irradiation of a population from any source is bound to have some genetic consequences. [18]
Problems Accumulute
Although the potential damage to human health from radioactivity, PCBS,
phthalates, and
a host of organic and inorganic chemicals that are accumulat—
mg rn the enV1r0nment is impossible to quantify, the history of durable, man—
ÎÊ’ZÇÎÎËÎÊ multtimde (f)f
ways in which nature reincorporateS
of this biological process vËaÎË ÊnS—
or better
or for worse.
The complemty
perately struggling to devis
a1
rt(})lm
the mmds of
the samtary
engmeers
des—
of Chicago’s drinkin watî.a-me
°d to keep
eX°remeΑt ‘?“t
about waste disposalgersistl Id1
Yet their early patterns
Of thmkrng
sights provided by
thä bi010 (i)c
merely a token integration
Of the 1ndamage has been done that %…Î Sclelrices. Often enough, it
is only when the
it is alreadv too late witness
1smst1tuted,
and by then
or
even more ser‘iously radiatio
€ _lnsect1C1de decrmaüon
Of b1rd populations
>
,
n—1nduced genetic changes in human beings.
18
Assault on 0 Lake
laboratory levels as low as 3 ppb reduced the growth and reproduction rates
of certain crustaceans. Foster Mayer, ]r., and colleagues at the laboratory
wrote:
Although phthalate esters cannot be impugned as an environmental hazard,
their subtle effects on aquatic organisms resulting from long—term, subacute
exposures
is unknown
.
.
.
there are indications that these compounds can be
detrimental to aquatic organisms at low chronic concentrations.[lô]
The biological concentration of these various long—lived contaminants
def1es the concept of dilution upon
which much of waste disposal engineering
rests. Thus, cesium 137 discharged from the Zion Nuclear Power Station
north of Chicago, although diluted in the cooling water discharge, will be
concentrated in vegetation watered by Lake Michigan and further concen—
trated in the livestock feeding on that vegetation. Minute quantities of cesium
137 in the water will be concentrated by some 9500 times in the bodies of
sunfish and by some 3000 times in the bodies of carp [17]. In any event, the
radioactive potential of the material will be passed on to man at some point
in the food chain even though the level of radioactivity in his drinking water
is kept very low. Immediate damage to the human body from ionizing radiation received in this way is probably not a threat; cumulative damage—such
as the inducement of cancer over a long period of time or genetic effects that
will affect some human offspring in one way or another—is a possibility that
must be weighed against the benets of nuclear power. With regard to gen—
etic eects, of radiation, the authors of the definitive book Water Quality
C7iteria, prepared for the California Water Quality Control Board, said:
For genetic effects, however, there appears to be no possible threshold dose
below which some effect may not occur. Any amount of radiation, no matter
how small, is bound to produce some mutations. Once completed, mutations
are
1rreversible and almost all mutations are deleterious. Irradiation of a population from any source is bound to have some genetic consequences. [18]
Problems Accumulute
Although the potential damage to human health from radioactivity, PCBS,
phthalates, and
a host of organic and inorganic chemicals that are accumulat—
mg rn the enV1r0nment is impossible to quantify, the history of durable, man—
ÎÊ’ZÇÎÎËÎÊ multtimde (f)f
ways in which nature reincorporateS
of this biological process vËaÎË ÊnS—
or better
or for worse.
The complemty
perately struggling to devis
a1
rt(})lm
the mmds of
the samtary
engmeers
des—
of Chicago’s drinkin watî.a-me
°d to keep
eX°remeΑt ‘?“t
about waste disposalgersistl Id1
Yet their early patterns
Of thmkrng
sights provided by
thä bi010 (i)c
merely a token integration
Of the 1ndamage has been done that %…Î Sclelrices. Often enough, it
is only when the
it is alreadv too late witness
1smst1tuted,
and by then
or
even more ser‘iously radiatio
€ _lnsect1C1de decrmaüon
Of b1rd populations
>
,
n—1nduced genetic changes in human beings.
18
Assault on 0 Lake