Before the Bomb - book review

Where do we go, to find out about the radiological effects of atomic weapons?

We usually seek out the rather patchy and incomplete stories of the victims - those at the "receiving end" of bombing, at Hiroshima, or of the atomic tests of Nevada, of Mururoa, Montebello, Maralinga. These have been covered in several books.

But, how much was known about these radiological effects before the Bomb?

Here, at last, is the book that answers this question. And Paul Langley's book The Prediction of the Radiological Effects of Atomic Bombs From Knowledge Published Prior to August 1945 answers it with evidence in forensic detail, a plenitude of exact primary documentary evidence, including digital evidence available on the Internet.

This is also a book that raises questions: questions that matter very much right now. Today, World War II veterans, Pacific Islanders, Navajo people and Australian Aborigines seek acknowledgment and justice for their diseases from exposure to radiation. Iraqi doctors and communities, and US, Canadian and UK Gulf War veterans claim health damage from depleted uranium. Where is the truth?

Since the early 1940s, public knowledge of, and safety guidance on, the radiation effects of atomic weapons has relied on information from the US Atomic Energy Commission. The AEC also supplied radioisotopes for medicine: atoms for healing and atoms for killing. Can we, should we, rely on AEC's data, to give the public the whole truth?

The book is divided into two volumes. The first covers early medical nuclear research before 1943 and the way in which this knowledge was incorporated into military research from 1943 onwards. The second covers Hiroshima.

This book is extraordinarily well researched. More than half of its 186 pages consist of references, appendices and bibliography. Appendices include relevant tables, maps, graphics, photographs, and detailed explanations of research surveys.

From Langley's meticulous study, a disturbing story emerges. From the early 1930s scientists researched the medical uses of radioisotopes, which were produced by the cyclotron. The work of Dr Charles Pecher was particularly important. He developed a very effective palliative treatment for terminal cancer patients, by using radioactive Strontium 89. This medical research also showed how radioisotopes caused disease in the healthy.

This knowledge was taken up, for use in weaponry, by the US Military, in the Manhattan Project. From 1940, fission research proceeded in the military setting, under censorship. Dr Pecher's palliative treatment method was left in abeyance until 1993. Medical knowledge was incorporated, and indeed diverted, into the secret Manhattan Project. Dr J Hamilton suggested radio Strontium to be spread over enemy food and water supplies. Hamilton was contracted from 1942 to pursue the military use of uranium, even including plutonium.

In 1995, the US Department of Energy produced the Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. It states: "The first proposed military application of atomic energy was not nuclear weaponry but radiological warfare (RW) - the use of radioactive materials to produce injury"

The Manhattan Project, with Dr Hamilton's work, provided the way that multiple radiological harm could be delivered to the enemy using ordinary bombs. This plan preceded the development of the atomic bomb. Sir Mark Oliphant wrote: "In 1943 it was clear that fission products would be a very great [radiation] hazard - I was so horrified by the biological conclusions."

The scientists knew of the radiation fallout hazard, and took precautions for the first atomic bomb test, Trinity, in July 1945. These precautions proved to be inadequate, as the radioactive fallout travelled beyond the expected area.

Medical research continued on these radioactive isotopes - "internal emitters". Langley's account of radioactive strontium-89 is complicated, but very telling. A fission product of uranium and plutonium, radio strontium-89, with a half-life of 51 days, taken up internally, emits Beta radiation. People with low calcium diets are more vulnerable to this, as calcium tends to prevent uptake of strontium-89. US authorities have known about this since Pecher's work in the 1940s. Hence, during the Cold War, strontium-89 was seen as a suitable weapon for use in Soviet countries, where the population's diet was generally low in calcium.

This story becomes even murkier, with the secret Project Sunshine, beginning in the 1950s. Project Sunshine's aim was to investigate the wider damaging effects of atomic bombing, beyond the immediate destruction area, including the later-term effects The project studied the long range effects of accumulating radio strontium-90, but not the effects of radio strontium-89. So, early devastating effects on the health of populations of strontium-89 were not monitored. This minimised the importance of the doses present in foods during the testing period. External Beta radiation burns also indicated internal Beta damage, but this was ignored.

In 1983 the US accepted responsibility for the radiation victims of the Marshall Islands' atomic tests. From radiation fission products taken internally, 36 conditions were accepted, including 26 types of cancer.

It is an Australian shame that this recognition has not been given to aboriginal victims. The reaction of Australian authorities has been a record of "lies, denial, racial taunts and suppression of evidence." In Project Sunshine's calculations of exposure dose to Australians, two population groups were excluded. These were: Aborigines living in remote areas around the bomb test sites, and the soldiers and others involved in the tests. In other words the two most affected groups.

A later health study continued to exclude the Aborigines, ignoring the testimony of survivors, their memory of the "Black Mist", and even of those with Beta burns. Secrecy surrounded the investigation. Professor Ernest Titterton, Chairman of the Australian Atomic Weapons Test Safety Committee, kept project information from the Committee. As he stated "I was subject to American control on information."

Volume 2 details the history of the Japanese research on radiological effects, beginning from August 7, 1945, and still continuing to this day. Professor Shimizu and a large team of others conducted very thorough surveys, finding Beta activity in soil and other samples. The US Occupational Forces confiscated the entire survey on September 2, 1945, and from then on controlled all data and reports. The US conducted a brief superficial survey, and down-graded the expertise and work of Shimizu. US public reports emphasised the blast effects of the bomb, and kept health effects classified.

80% of Hiroshima casualties were civilian. Several military installations were not targeted, and the hypocenter of the bomb area was found to be at the hospital.

The secrecy and lack of concern for the radiological effects has implications not only for the Japanese survivors, but also for the Allied troops in Japan at the time.

One limitation of the Japanese research was that "the technology they used in these surveys did not permit investigation of Alpha radiation. Alpha radiation, harmless outside the body, causes severe cell damage once taken in by breathing or swallowing. The omission of studying Alpha radiation is a serious problem for today's questions, especially about depleted uranium. Depleted uranium weapons emit alpha radiation.

This book is richly supplied with detailed evidence, with up-to-date references, which back up the author's arguments. So it is difficult to refute Langley's claim that nuclear medicine became militarised from the 1940s. The work of Dr Pecher to bring relief to terminal cancer patients was side-lined into the planning and production of radiological weapons. The early medical researchers obtained radioisotopes from the cyclotron. The Atomic Energy Commission used medicine to promote nuclear reactors. The history of radiological warfare is one of suppression of knowledge, and denial of the radiation effects.

This is not an easy book to read. One can feel weighed down by its technical detail. So, for some people, it might best find its place as a reference work

However, the detail is necessary. It is a very original idea, to explore and expose the motivations behind the Manhattan project, and behind the continuing secrecy about radiological warfare. No doubt there are many who would like to dismiss Paul Langley's book because " he is not a nuclear physicist." Langley is a former soldier, with a background of Army training and experience in the use of RADIAC instruments and radiation safety, But it is pretty hard to ignore all that well-reasoned and well-documented evidence.