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Lenore Marshall
Founder (1899-1971) |
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Board of Directors |
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John W. Gofman, Chairman
Prof. Emeritus in Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley |
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June Allen, M.Ed.
Enviro-Health Concerns, Wichita, Kansas |
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Ramsey Clark
Former U.S. Attorney General |
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Paul R. Ehrlich
Prof. of Biology, Stanford University |
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Frances Tarlton Farenthold
Attorney at Law, Houston, Texas |
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Franklin L. Gage
Environmental Consultant, Washington, D.C. |
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Eloise W. Kailin
M.D. Diplomate Am. Bd. of Allergy and Immunology |
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Richard McCarthy
Former U.S. Congressman from New York |
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Ian McHarg
Chairman, Department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania |
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Lewis Mumford (1895-1990)
Honorary Fellow, Science Policy Foundation |
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Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Nobel Laureate Prof. of Chemistry, Stanford University |
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Harold Urey (1993-1991)
Nobel Laureate University Prof. Emeritus, Chemistry Dept., University of California at San Diego |
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George Wald (1906-1997)
Nobel Laureate Higgins Prof. Of Biology, Harvard University |
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Organizational affiliation
for identification only. |
Renewal Request
Fall 1998
One
of the most overlooked dangers from nuclear pollution, and
from other sources of irradiation, is the problem of inherited
afflictions when the exposed persons subsequently conceive
children. This topic belongs at the top of the list of importance,
with respect to nuclear power and nuclear pollution.
Anyone
who is acquainted with cancer, or heart disease, or
diabetes, or epilespy, or mental handicap, or learning disorders,
or emotional disorders in the family --- and few families escape
one of these afflictions --- may already know or suspect that people
can inherit a tendency to these miseries. And to many, many
others.
The
enclosed article supports the
scientifically credible warning that at least one-fourth --- and
maybe more than half --- of the inherited tendencies are probably
due to the very low-dose radiation which humans have been receiving
(generation after generation) from natural background sources.
In
short, it is a big mistake for people to assume that background
doses do "negligible" harm. Because our warning is scientifically
credible, doubling the "background" dose by nuclear pollution would
be a crime against many, many future generations. The "mistake,"
once made, would require countless generations to un-do
(Part 12 of the
enclosure). Our warning stands in dramatic contrast to the
assertions elsewhere that it would be inconsequential if the natural
dose were ever doubled by "permissible levels" of nuclear pollution.
Today,
due to global warming and to the still-expanding world
population, the nuclear power industry is preparing to promote a
new generation of nuclear power plants, as the alleged "solution"
for energy. Back in 1971, we did the calculations demonstrating that
one year's operation of one nuclear power plant (any
type, old or new) necessarily creates the requirement to contain,
for centuries, as much long-lived radioactive poison as created
by the explosion of about 1,000 Hiroshima bombs
(on reverse side of this letter). As C.N.R.'s
donor-slip has always said, "We can not solve the energy problem
by creating a radiation problem."
From
1971 to today, C.N.R. has continuously provided information
and analysis of a type which no other group seems to generate. And
in the first part of 1999, we will publish C.N.R.'s fourth book
--- a major scientific monograph which points the way to preventing
a very great amount of radiation-induced health-misery. As you
know, I fully donate my own effort.
Nonetheless,
C.N.R. has heavy expenditures to publish and distribute
the work. And so we return to you for an annual renewal of support,
without which we could not do it. Your generous help is always
deeply appreciated.
With warmest good wishes, John W. Gofman, M.D., Chairman