Cancer Incidence of Finnish Sami in the Light of Exposure to Radioactive Fallout

This article summarizes the results of studies on the exposure of the Finnish Sami people to radioactive fallout and the estimations of the related cancer risk. We also discuss the lifestyle, genetic origin and diet of this population. The Sami people are an indigenous people who live in the northern part of Scandinavia and Finland. The review is based on the available scientific literature of Finnish Sami. The traditional Sami diet, high in animal products, persists in Sami groups still involved in reindeer-herding, but others have adopted the typical diet of western cultures. Studies have consistently shown an overall reduced cancer risk among the Finnish Sami people, except for stomach cancer among the Skolt Sami. Common cancers among the Finnish main population, such as prostate, breast and skin cancer are especially rare among the Finnish Sami. The incidence of cancer among the Finnish Sami are mostly similar to those of the Swedish and Norwegian Sami. To conclude, we observed no effect of radioactive pollution on cancer incidence. The lifestyles and environments of the Sami are changing, and their cancer mortality rate today is similar to that of the majority of the Finnish and western population.

Occupational Health and Radiation Safety of Radiography Workers

Medical imaging is the identification or study procedure for obtaining medical images of body parts. Millions of imaging procedures take place worldwide each week. Radiation protection is intended to prevent the ionizing radiation exposure from having harmful effects. Exposure may result from a source of radiation outside the human body, or from ingestion of radioactive pollution from internal irradiation. This chapter presents Occupational Health and Radiation Safety of Radiography workers in the medical imaging field. This chapter also summarizes how current employment health status and knowledge gaps can be illustrated in some key and critical occupational issues as well as diseases such as radiation, nosocomial and occupational infections.

RESULTS OF MONITORING ON RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION OF COMMERCIAL MARINE ORGANISMS IN THE NORTH-WEST PACIFIC AFTER THE ACCIDENT AT FUKUSHIMA DAI-ICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION IN 2011

Results of several years monitoring on radioactive pollution of fisheries objects in the Russian EEZ and adjacent North-West Pacific (fish, crabs, shrimps, marine algae) after the accident at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011 are generalized. Two catastrophic releases of radioactive isotopes to atmosphere and directly to the ocean happened at Fukushima in late March and early April, 2011. However, not a single case of dangerous pollution of fish or seafoods caught by Russian fishermen was detected. The highest activity of radioisotopes (137Cs up to 8.1 Bq/kg, 134Cs to 6.9 Bq/kg ww) was found for fish (pink salmon juveniles) caught off Kuril Islands in several days after the strongest release of radionuclides into the atmosphere. Soon, in summer 2011, the level of radioactive pollution in this area came close to the regional background level, the pre-accident level was restored in 2012, and the tendency to decreasing of radioactive pollution (that was observed after the nuclear tests termination) was restored in 2013. The observed radioactive contamination of fish, invertebrates and algae tissues is considerably (in 1–2 orders) below the sanitary permissible levels for isotopes of Cs and Sr. Lack of significant consequences of the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident for bioresources of Russian waters is explained by spatial patterns of the water drift from Fukushima coast driven by oceanic currents in spring-summer of 2011 that was directed generally eastward, far from the Russian coasts. There is noted that radioactive contamination of fish tissues is determined by current radiation situation (here and now), no signs of accumulation and transfer of pollution by migratory species are found.

Modeling the transport of radioactive pollution in the Ussuri Gulf during the first days after the nuclear accident in the Chazhma Bay in August 1985

Представлены результаты лагранжевого моделирования распространения радиоактивного загрязнения в Уссурийском заливе на различных горизонтах по глубине на основе численной региональной модели циркуляции ROMS с использованием эмпирических данных выпадения радиоактивных осадков из атмосферы на поверхность акватории в день аварии на атомной подводной лодке в бухте Чажма 10 августа 1985 г. Показано, что радиоактивное пятно могло оставаться в Уссурийском заливе в течение первых четырех суток после аварии. Установлено, что эволюция и деформация начального пятна загрязнения на разных горизонтах обусловлены влиянием вихрей разных полярностей и размеров (мезомасштабный циклон в центре залива, субмезомасштабный антициклон на севере и мезомасштабный антициклон на юге) и лагранжевых когерентных структур, связанных с гиперболическими точками в заливе. The results of Lagrangian modeling of the transport of radioactive pollution in the Ussuri Gulf at various depths based on a regional ROMS numerical model of circulation using the empirical data on the radioactive fallout from the atmosphere at the sea surface on the day of the accident at a nuclear submarine in the Chazhma Bay in August 10, 1985. It was shown that the radioactive particles remain in the Ussuri Gulf for the first 4 days after the accident. It has been shown that the evolution and deformation of the initial pollution patch on various horizons was influenced by vortices of different polarity and size in the Ussuri Gulf (a mesoscale cyclone in the center of the Gulf, a sub-mesoscale anticyclone in the north and a mesoscale anticyclone in the south) and by Lagrangian coherent structures connected with hyperbolic points in the Gulf.