The Children of Atomic Bomb Survivors A Genetic Study (1991) / Chapter Skim
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From page 1... ...
But not only is this subject a major issue in its own right, it also serves as a prototype for the type of genetic epidemiology necessary to evaluate the impact on our genetic selves of other human perturbations of the environment In which our species now functions. It is a highly technical issue, ill served by overly simplistic approaches and hasty generalizations.
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From page 2... ...
Nevertheless, as the preliminary data on post-atomic bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki emerged, it became very likely, given the number of survivors in the two cities and their probable gonadal doses, as well as the indicators one would be forced to pursue in any study, that even a very major effort would not yield a statistically significant difference between the children of survivors receiving increased radiation at the time of the bombings (ATB) and the children of suitable controls.
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From page 3... ...
A preliminary analysis of the accumulated data in 1953 revealed no significant difference between children according to the exposure category of their parents. The experience between 1948 and 1953 with the numbers of children born to parents thought to have received significant amounts of radiation at the time of the bombings made it possible to predict probable future trends with respect to the number of offspring of such parents.
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From page 4... ...
In addition, an effort was initiated to determine if there was a relation between parental radiation histories and a simple battery of anthropometr~c measurements of Hiroshima schoolchildren obtained in 1965 in the course of an annual school examination program. Among births occurring in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during this period, only some 15% involved parents who were thought to have incurred significant radiation exposures ATB.
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From page 5... ...
Inasmuch as for practical reasons the necessary venous blood samples were not obtained until the child had attained 13 years of age, the findings are considered valid with respect to sex-chromosome aneuploidy and balanced chromosomal rearrangements, conditions in which survival is essentially normal, but not with respect to unbalanced chromosomal rearrangements or autosomal aneuploidy (Chapter 8~. In 1975, after a three-year pilot study, a search was initiated for mutations resulting in electrophoretic variants of a series of 30 proteins of serum and erythrocytes, and in loss of activity in a series of ~ 1 erythrocyte enzymes, again in a subset of the Fit Mortality Cohort sampled at age 13 or above (Chapter 9~.
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From page 6... ...
The average combined gonadal doses of the exposed parents, however, approximated what on the basis of experiments with mice have been extrapolated to be the gametic doubling dose of acute radiation for humans. As these analyses unfolded, we began to sense a possible discrepancy between these findings on the children of survivors and the expectations based on projections from the mouse paradigm which had dominated the risk assessments of various national and international committees.
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From page 7... ...
This apparent discrepancy between the human and mouse data led to an effort to reanalyze the existing published data on murine radiation genetics, together with the addition of some previously unpublished data, the better to understand the reasonks) for the apparent difference.
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From page 8... ...
In the final analysis, however, the ultimate test of the public's attitude toward a program is its cooperation. We note that the cytogenetic and biochemical studies, which, long after the Occupation had been terminated, involved obtaining venous blood samples from individuals 13 years or older (i.e., "free agents")
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