BIOPOLITICS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS OF SIBERIA
Professor Sergei Kolesnikov
Co-President, International Physicians
for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Russia
First, I would like to thank the Biopolitics International Organisation for inviting me to this distinguished conference. I represent Soviet scientists belonging to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) as co-president of this Nobel Prize winning, non-governmental organization.
With such a distinguished audience, it is unnecessary to remind you that the citizen of the Soviet Union or former Soviet Union has a very low life expectancy, especially the male population. There is a difference of 10 years between the United States and Russia. In Siberia the differential is 15 years. This disparity is increasing.
There are numerous chemical factories in Siberia which certainly affect ecological and health conditions. In addition, as mentioned in the book Radio-active Heaven and Earth, nuclear explosions, including underground ones, were carried out in more than fifty areas of Siberia. Unfortunately, in many cases we have no information on the precise date and magnitude of these explosions.
Regular medical examinations have revealed differences between native Siberians and newcomers in the intrinsic hereditary parameters, as well as in their sensitivity to pollution and contamination. The differences were most prominent in children and pregnant women. In comparing this data, we obtained the following: people in their seventies exhibited an equal mortality rate in both populations; people born in the time of active industrialization showed that native Siberians had a higher mortality rate. The same result was obtained by comparing the mortality rate of the children under one year of age. Nevertheless, all the mortality rate values in the USSR were very high, especially for people of the Tofalar and Evenk areas.
Scientists from St. Petersburg collected data on the Chukotka region. The most striking fact was the rapid growth of cancer-related mortality, which in these populations was twice as much as the average USSR value. Different explanations have been suggested.
American and Soviet scientists believe that such a sharp increase in cancer incidence implies that significant oncological factors are present in the environment. These factors could include increasing radioactive contamination along with the altered ecological situation characteristic of Northern Siberia. Hypothetically, the local population, the Chukchi, would have been harmed by high doses of X-rays. However, the real cause may be that reindeer is the main source of food. Reindeer feed on moss, which efficiently accumulates radio-nuclids. It has been shown that people who worked with, and ate reindeer had 10-20 times higher concentrations of lead in their bones than the average population.
Radiation has not been invented by man, it has always existed in nature. All living organisms on Earth appeared, developed, and will develop under its influence. Hence, radiation and radionuclids are present everywhere. Soil, house walls, air, water, food, and space are sources of radiation as well as natural argon gas. Before 1963, severe pollution was due to the global stratospheric jet streams. Atmospheric testing in China showed that elevated levels of natural radiation were present worldwide. Such levels are typical in countries such as Brazil, India, China, France, and Sweden.
In many regions of the Soviet Union, diseases of unclear origin occurred. For example, the syndrome of `yellow children’ has been recently studied by Professor. N. M. Novikov from Barnaul. Some newborn children resembled hemolytic syndrome patients, even though the parents did not differ in their rhesus factor. Preliminary data suggests that the cause may be a decreased membrane stability of the erythrocytes which resulted in their rupture and subsequent hemoglobin release.
At the Children and Mother Health Care Center, under the guidance of Academy Member Kulakov, children and pregnant women from the Briansk area of Russia were given medical examinations and treatment. These people were exposed to radiation from Chernobyl. In addition, those living in an area with a low radioactivity level but close to a cement factory were investigated. In both cases, an increase in genital disease incidence was found.
Before 1990, the number of newborn babies over four kilograms was increasing with time, now this trend has reversed. Such results were similar for both regions examined. Researchers explained it in terms of an additive effect of pollutants and a deleterious effect of chemical factory emissions substantiated by radioactive irradiation. Similar events such as pregnancy complications and placenta pathology, which belong to the non-specific effects of radiation, occurred in both regions.
Children and pregnant women are the least protected group. Strong evidence was obtained by our orthopedic institute in cities with pollution due to aluminum production. Pathogenic effects would be invariably strengthened, if this group were exposed to a combination of pollutants.
Figure 1: The effect of toxicants on the enzyme activity of rats when injected prenatally and on the 9th week of their lives
Over the last five years, many cases of allopecia (baldness) in children have been registered. These incidences were especially characteristic of children born during 1986 and 1987 in the Ukraine. The symptoms appeared in the fourth year of life. In Bratsk, an industrial town not far from the Baikal lake in Siberia, dozens of childhood allopecia cases developed.
If the influence of low radiation doses is under study, then the initial state of the organism and the current ecological situation should be considered. People differ in their responses to various factors. Different patterns of patho-genic action can be due to the differences with respect to culture, history, sex, as well population characteristics and other factors.
We have conducted interesting experiments in this area. Different pollutants were tested with regard to their effects on pregnant animals in the early periods of gestation. The agents used were benzapyrene and the pesticide paraquat applied in nontoxic doses, the first being more carcinogenic. The resulting progeny was studied upon reaching maturity. Some of the test and control animals received a second injection of the pollutants. It is obvious that the initial level of biochemical parameters is similar, but after the injection, the male test animals’ responses differed greatly. They sustained more damage from paraquat, but showed significant resistance to benzapyrene. The male hormone levels resembled those in the females in the latter case, the so-called `inter-sexualization’. Most of these chemical and non-chemical `stress factors’ lead to secondary immunodeficiency syndrome. Hence, the male population is more susceptible to harmful factors.
The Institute of Microbiology, studied the incidence of infectious diseases in heavily polluted and less polluted city districts. Evidence was collected regarding the increase in disease incidence in polluted areas. Moreover, our scientists developed a new approach to the problem of diminishing the high mortality caused by infections.
A seasonal increase in infectious disease cases calls for using all possible prophylactic and immunization measures. These measures are most efficient when taken during this period. In light of these seemingly disparate data, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- native Siberians appear to be more sensitive to pollutants including the radioactive ones. They have a prominent homozygous genotype and, consequently, a narrowed reaction range. We found that they have a decreased ability to detoxify free radicals which appear after X-ray exposure as well as detoxification of the liver, hence the quick development of alcoholism in this population;
- the joint influence of radiation and other ecologically harmful factors, industrial and climatic, is particularly deleterious. This combination increases the harmful action of radiation. Care must be taken, because the nuclear, chemical, and biological arms race is not stopping. Also producing, testing and storing warheads in one area is very dangerous;
- the Soviet population faces some unknown phenomena: allopecia in children; allopecia in reindeer; `yellow children’. Joint research programs are necessary to reveal the truth and to predict global health hazards and diseases like AIDS.
Our country is becoming a place where the influence of complex factors is more severe than in other countries. Thus it can be a place of joint investigations for all scientists. We will do our best to organize and take part in such investigations. The IPPNW and the women’s center, `Women’s Future’, have taken only preliminary steps in creating a global ecological program in the USA, USSR, Germany, Japan and Sweden. Because the level of governmental organization is ineffective, a small part of this project is financed by the Russian Peace Committee and the Siberian Children’s Health Fund. Indeed, global cooperation and financing of these projects are needed since it would benefit not only our country, but the whole global community. It could be a decisive step in biopolitics.
Professor Sergei Kolesnikov, M.D. is founder and First President of the Eastern Siberian Scientific Centre of Russian (former USSR) Academic Medical Science, Irkutsk, Russia. He is Head of the Science Department of the Institute of Paediatrics and Human Reproduction. Specialising in embryology, his work was recognised in 1994 by his inclusion in “5000 Personalities of the World,” and in 1993 when he was included in “Who’s Who in the World” and “Who’s Who in Science and Technology.” He is chief editor of the bulletin of the Eastern-Siberian Science Centre, and co-founder of the International University for Bio-Environment, Athens, Greece. Author of more than 200 scientific articles and six books, he now has more than 20 trained assistants who now work outside Russia for him, including USA, UK, Israel and CIS countries.
