[NukeNet] John W. Gofman and 21st century actions

Sun Aug 26 10:23:50 EDT 2007

John Gofman was one of the first scientists who offered a clear path to
documenting the long-term harm done by radiation using cancer
epidemiology.  His approach to taking current real-world data on what
was happening in communities of radiation-exposed people and projecting
likely cancers in the future was a major leap forward.  It made it
possible to understand that the likely consequences of low level
radiation were much greater than previously described.  He understood
that cancer develops in different people at different ages, and so
constructed tables to "predict" the long-term consequences of exposing
large populations to radiation.  His 1981 book "Radiation and Human
Health", described this and many other things that are still very
relevant to our struggles for public health protection today.  While its
validity and relevance are unquestionable, it is not an approach favored
by the US government (no comment needed).  

For those people who also work on chemical hazards and protection of
children's health, his 1981 book was one of the first that contained a
concept we are finding to be extremely important in chemicals management
for public health protection.  His study of radiation-induced cancer
showed that low dose exposures could do greater damage per unit of dose
than high dose exposures (a supralinear dynamic).  At a time when
accepted truths were derived from high dose Hiroshima and Nagasaki
effects, this was a quantum leap forward in thinking about radiation and
understanding the hazards of low doses of ionizing radiation.  It has
only been in the last 5 years that we've seen studies emerge on this
same dynamic for some chemical hazards - in lead and mercury induced
cognitive damage in children and other areas. The implications for
national public health policies are substantial - that for at least some
chemicals, our water, food, air, and soil standards may not be
protecting us, even when the standards are based on the best available
science.  

I still consider Gofman's books part of an essential library to
understand and explain the fundamentals of radiation and health.  The
basic ideas and clear explanations he gave for very complex topics
remain a model for connecting science and the public.  His passing is a
loss, but his ideas remain for us to work with, expand on, and use in
our current efforts to achieve sane energy policies.  I think he would
be pleased.

Kathy

Kathleen Burns, Ph.D.
Director
Sciencecorps
Lexington, Massachusetts

-----Original Message-----
From: nukenet-bounces at energyjustice.net
[mailto:nukenet-bounces at energyjustice.net] On Behalf Of Bill Smirnow
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 1:51 AM
To: Bill Smirnow; Mike Ewall
Subject: [NukeNet] Some Historical Dr. Gofman: John W. Gofman
(1918-2007)

NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet at energyjustice.net)

http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/ohre/roadmap/histories/0457/0457t
oc.html

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Ewall" <catalyst at actionpa.org>
To: <nukenet at energyjustice.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 12:52 AM
Subject: [NukeNet] John W. Gofman (1918-2007)

> NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet at energyjustice.net)
>
>
> New York Times
> August 26, 2007
>
> John W. Gofman, 88, Scientist and Advocate for Nuclear Safety, Dies By

> JEREMY PEARCE
>
> Dr. John W. Gofman, a nuclear chemist and doctor who in the 1960s 
> heightened public concerns about exposure to low-level radiation and 
> became a leading voice against commercial nuclear power, died on Aug. 
> 15 at his home in San Francisco. He was 88.
>
> The cause was heart failure, his family said.
>
> In 1964, while he was director of the biomedical research division at 
> Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Dr. Gofman 
> helped start a national inquiry into the safety of atomic power. At a 
> symposium for nuclear scientists and engineers, he raised questions 
> about a lack of data on low-level radiation and also proposed a 
> wide-ranging study of exposure in medicine and the workplace, from 
> fallout and other sources.
>
> With a colleague at Livermore, Dr. Arthur R. Tamplin, Dr. Gofman then 
> looked at health studies of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 
> as well as other epidemiological studies, and conducted his own 
> research on radiation's influences on human chromosomes. In 1969, the 
> two scientists suggested that federal safety guidelines for low-level 
> exposures be reduced by 90 percent.
>
> The findings were contested by the Atomic Energy Commission, and the 
> furor made Dr. Gofman a reluctant figurehead of the antinuclear 
> movement. In 1970, he testified in favor of a legislative bill to ban 
> commercial nuclear reactors in New York City and told the City Council

> that a reactor in urban environs would be "equal in the opposite 
> direction to all the medical advances put together in the last 25 
> years."
>
> Both he and Dr. Tamplin left Livermore in the 1970s, and Dr. Gofman 
> went on to become an expert witness in radiation-exposure lawsuits and

> help found an advocacy group, the Committee for Nuclear 
> Responsibility, based in San Francisco. In an unsuccessful project, he

> and others called for a five-year federal moratorium on new nuclear 
> power stations, citing problems in the safe storage of radioactive 
> waste. Yet, for all his efforts as a nuclear gadfly, he did not oppose

> the building of nuclear missiles.
>
> "Because we live in a dangerous world," he said in 1993, "I think the 
> only thing you have is the deterrence value" of such weaponry.
>
> Dr. Gofman's appearance in the nuclear debate surprised some 
> colleagues, since a thrust of his earlier research had been in 
> cardiology. In the late 1940s and '50s, he and his collaborators 
> investigated the body's lipoproteins, which contain both proteins and 
> fats, and their circulation within the bloodstream. The researchers 
> described low-density and high-density lipoproteins and their roles in

> metabolic disorders and coronary disease.
>
> In his earliest work, while still a graduate student at the University

> of California, Berkeley, Dr. Gofman studied nuclear isotopes and 
> helped to describe several discoveries, including protactinium-232, 
> uranium-232, protactinium-233 and uranium-233. He also helped to work 
> out the fissionability of uranium-233.
>
> John William Gofman was born in Cleveland. He graduated from Oberlin 
> College, and received a doctorate in nuclear and physical chemistry 
> from Berkeley in 1943. Dr. Gofman went on to earn a medical degree 
> from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1946.
>
> He joined Berkeley in 1947 and retired as professor emeritus of 
> molecular and cell biology in 1973.
>
> With Egan O'Connor, he wrote a book, "X-Rays: Health Effects of Common

> Exams" (1986). He also wrote "Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose 
> Exposure: An Independent Analysis" (1990).
>
> Dr. Gofman's wife, Dr. Helen Fahl Gofman, a pediatrician, died in 
> 2004.
>
> He is survived by a son, Dr. John D. Gofman, an ophthalmologist, of 
> Bellevue, Wash.
>
> ------
>
> As a tribute to him, would anyone like to update his Wikipedia entry 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gofman), which currently is only a 
> paltry three sentences?
>
> Mike Ewall
> Energy Justice Network
> 215-743-4884
> catalyst at actionpa.org
> http://www.energyjustice.net
>
>
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