The Present State of our Knowledge of Radiations in Reference to Radio-Biology:-
I want to produce in the manner of analysis, three factors, namely, the extent of our present knowledge of Radiations in Radiobiology, and our knowledge of the varieties of radiation, and the extent of our control in the effects of radiation, so that the reader may himself judge the plausibility of the adoption of atomic energy at this stage in the light of the hazards incident on it.
Our knowledge in this respect as yet is relatively too meager to permit a venture at the adoption of atomic energy. The following points may be presented to illustrate the situation:-
a. Clues are there, indeed numerous, but the key discoveries have yet to be made.
b. Nothing is as yet known of the details of the fines structure of the nucleus of the cell in the resting stage.
c. The division of function between cytoplasm and nucleus is not clear cut, and there is considerable evidence for the presence of some genetic factors in the cytoplasm while a considerable amount of synthesis of structural material also occurs in the nucleus.
d. Neither of the current hypothesis about the Chromosome-breaks is correct and a theory will have to be evolved which incorporates the features of both. The nature of the injury which holds up the normal cell cycle for a time is not known.
e. The mechanism by which enzymes can cause specific chemical reaction to take place is not understood.
f. The synthesis of proteins from amino-acids is a reaction which has so far completely defied the ingenuity of the chemists.
g. No convincing reason has yet been put forward to explain why there are tremendous variations between different cells in their response to radiation; only when this is known will it be possible to base radio-therapy of cancer or methods of protection against radiation on a reliable foundation. It is a measure of difficulty and complexity of the subject that not even a tentative answer can be given to the question. The key problem of cancer research is: What stimuli cause a cell to stop dividing when an organ reaches a correct size, and to repair damage after an injury.
h. The mechanism by which radiation eradicates tumors is extremely complex.
I. The way in which tumor cells are killed or sterilized is not fully understood.
j. All the stages as yet between the passages of radiation through the irradiated organs and the final injury cannot be followed.
k. It is difficult to predict the course and outcome or radiation treatment.
l. The most obvious effect of radiation on cell is death, but even this drastic change is far from easy to define for the individual cell.
m. No complete explanation can be given for the paradox that although the pathological changes from whole body irradiation are diffuse and ill-defined, yet death occurs with remarkable regularity. This is a sort of a mystery which of all the various kinds of poisons is a peculiarly distinctive characteristic of atomic radiation.
n. The symptoms of acute radiation-sickness can be summarized but they tell us little about the cause of death. If a pathologist carries out a post-mortem examination on mammal which has succumbed after a radiation dose of a few hundred roentgens he would find it very difficult to pinpoint death to failure of a particular organ.
o. No treatment has yet been found which applied sometime after irradiation, can reduce the number of mutation; since no recovery is possible from mutation, no post irradiation treatment would be expected to restore a mutation. Even that little which has been discovered to be of some effect before irradiation can be considered of little practical use due to the insidious nature of radiation.
p. No answer can be given to the question, whether chemicals can protect against the long-term effects of radiation. Technical difficulties make it extremely hard to measure accurately the mutations produced in mammals.
q. It is not known how a dose of radiation sufficient to kill or visibly injure a cell represents such a minute amount of energy that it could only affect a very few molecules, a change totally insufficient to bring about the pronounced biological effects directly. It in fact is a challenge to the scientists.
r. It is both a disappoint and surprise that no effective substance against radiation effect has been found. This sentence contains a meaning that should serve as a barrier to the adoption of atomic energy at this stage. It ought to have been inscribed on the entrance of every atomic plant and every atomic research laboratory. But mark the blindness of the world.
s. Even the much talked about permissive dose is merely conjectural, and it is naturally should come as no mild surprise to those that have hitherto cherished a belief in unquestionable certainty of science. This topic of nuclear science has in the very outset put science to disgrace and has thrown its reputation as exact knowledge into jeopardy. Ultimately this very topic will destroy science and along with science the mankind. Science has committed the gravest mistake in making the atomic bombs and atomic reactors without at the same time discovering the protection against these monstrosities.
We have presently dwelt at length on the meagerness of our present knowledge of the subject of radiations in radiobiology. Leaving these things to the erudite, we will centralize the whole theme on one point, namely that of the permissible dose. The fact is that the permissible dose of radiation is only conjectural. It is conjectural because its correct amount cannot be estimated until the experimental data is available. The experimental data will be available only after the genetic effects of radiation have appeared in mankind. These effects shall make their appearance only after several generations (the number of these generations being unknown at present). It obviously means that the recommendation of the use of atomic-energy-for-peace no more than to make mankind the guinea pigs of the experimentation for generations to come until in some generation the genetic effects of radiation appear in the form of abnormal births or in some other form, and then only it will be possible to judge and estimate the exact amount of the permissible dose. Take lesson and pay heed to it then, O unfortunate mankind! Poor, miserable guinea pigs of radiation and do not allow yourself to become the victims of radiation experimentation, the dreadful experimentation, for, once the genetic effects of radiation have appeared in some future generation than the judgment of the permissible dose shall be of avail. The die then shall have been cast and the destinies spun. The genetic damage of radiation you know is reversible, irreparable, inheritable, cumulative and multiplicative, and there is neither any protection nor any remedy. Mankind then will have been irrecoverably lost, and the scientist will then be nowhere to be seen. But the real method of averting the atomic danger is to remove the three basic evils. Do not slander, do not throw yourself into the constant pursuit of wealth of this world as the object of your life. Do not think that you have to live in this world forever, nor that shall your wealth render you immortal.
Establishment Varieties of the Subject of Radiation:
And now after the shortcomings of the subject of radiation have been understood, let us memorize the varieties of the subject of radiation that is the points of the adoption of atomic-energy-for-peace at this stage be assessed by the inquisitive reader. It is very decisive digest and must therefore be read and understood with care due to tit:-
a. Radiations are inherent in the very nature of atomic energy, and not so much as a single fission could be caused without at the same time causing the emission of radiation and hence not a fission bomb could be detonated without at the same time inundating the effective zone with atomic radiations. The fusion bomb due to its terrific explosive force would even disperse the radioactive fission products of the accompanied fission device all over the earth. This inevitability of the production of radiations during the fission process is a question that books no negligence and affords no escape.
b. All radiations are naturally detrimental to health and life, no matter how negligible the amount thereof.
c. No protection against atomic radiation is possible except by completely, materially covering the actual source of radiation. The sources of atomic energy which essentially are the source of atomic radiations are liable to leakage and explosion. Covering every single individual materially to protect against radiation is an impossibility. In case an atomic reactor explodes to flood the neighboring district with radiations, the inhabitants thereof are simply on the mercy of the elements. They are exposed to somatic as well as genetic effects of radiations dispersed by the leaking or exploded reactor. Those who would suffer from radiation-sickness might die or might survive the effects but the factor of the genetic effects of radiation constitutes a very serious hazard due to the long-term effects. The mutated genes moving through generations secretly may ultimately manifest their existence in the form of abnormal births. These effects being inheritable, cumulative and multiplicative may in the long run constitute a very serious hazard to the populations. The thing then, when it is viewed in a future perspective of an overwhelming redundancy of atomic reactors and other sources of radioactivity all over the world should appear in a truly dangerous form. The problems of providing universal protection therefore has as a rule to be solved before venturing at the adoption of the atomic energy. Or else it would mean a blind leap into a burning hell of fire unprotected.
d. No sure cure for radiation injury has hitherto been discovered and none as yet is in sight. Judging from the difficulty of the matter due to the occurrence of radiation reactions in sub atomic and generally beyond man's regions of matter, and the difficulty of bringing the sub atomic structures of atoms disrupted by the reactions of radiation back to their original arrangements the discovery of a sure cure for radiation injury might seem a matter to promise very dubious success. The genetic effects of radiation as is well known are simply irreversible and irreparable without any some sure cure for radiation sickness might someday be discovered. It may be equally assumed that the radiations might by then have done enough irreparable damage to mankind and the discovery may prove untimely and of little worth.
e. There are no means of detecting recessive genes until they have themselves made their existence manifest in the form of abnormal births, nor there happen to be any measures of preventing checking, or curing them. This indeed as is obvious is a very ugly features of radiation effects, and it is this feature that may become the cause of the extinction of human race and all life after an indefinite span of miserable existence on earth.
f. The genetic effects of radiation are quite independent of producing any symptoms of radiation-sickness or cancer is yet capable of causing gene mutations. This evidently is a very dangerous aspect of radiation injury, and speaks against the adopting of atomic energy.
g. When ordinary mice are injected after irradiation with bone marrow from a mutant strain, all the cells in the blood forming organs of the ordinary mice may be found to contain the sick-shaped chromosome. This concept has been extended and it has been found that even rat cells would take and multiplying irradiation mice. The mouse has become the chimera, the mythological monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. This experiment has shown that the creatures in the age of radiations are too subjected to the surest risk of becoming chimeras of innumerable forms. This experiment alone was enough to bring about instantaneous cessation of all the atomic energy activities without any thought of recurrence to the topic in a world not doomed to atomic devastation. But unfortunately it had no effect on a doomed race and the experiment was hailed as one that opened up the possibilities of prolonging life.
h. Reverting to the topic of gene mutation, it must be known that gene mutations are secretly transmitted to future generations successively, generation after generation will they have made their existence manifest in the form of an abnormal birth. These abnormalities being inheritable, monsters beget monsters, through marriages. This process goes on till the whole or most of mankind would turn into a race of chimeras of thousands of different kinds. The same could be said of all the flaura and fauna. And these are not mere fantasies but true realities which undoubtedly reveal the blindness of this present humanity that in spite of all this knowledge should be found ready to adopt atomic energy. Radiations will secretly keep on preparing the mankind for the metamorphosis in a future generation, and will keep on undermining the health of successive generations till the whole of mankind is changed into a lot of ailing, sickly, miserable people. In a world economically ruined and changed into a vast hospital. Atomic-energy-plants will then be dreaded and deserted.
i. The amount of permissible dose is not certain. Generations are required to pass away to provide the results of nuclear experiment. But when the results will appear, then to ban the atomic energy will be of little avail to any one, for the mankind will by then have been effectively dynamited, indeed irreparably, irreversibly, openly and insidiously. These are the facts that only the doomed ones can ignore. Still there is some little margin left for thought. Still the schemes of the atomic-energy-for-peace could be abandoned with little or no loss to anyone. Today no danger of industrial disruption of the world is involved in the banishment of atomic energy, but in a future stage when in an atmosphere of full-fledged atomic energy mankind will be obliged to abandon atomic energy due to unbearable miseries brought about by it, the abandonment will mean industrial disasters, and all the industrial set up of the world shall go to pieces leaving it in the grip of famines, diseases, epidemics and a hundred other miseries. But of all the innumerable grief’s that mercilessly cut at the strings of the miserable heart of anyone who is endowed with sufficient imagination to have a peep into the conditions of the future atomic age, a glaring one that seems to cut deeper into the heart is that the medical attendants what constitute a profession, at present rendering most humanitarian service with intend sincerity in this age, should be reduced by the necessity in the future age of atomic energy to employ all their toil, talent, time and service in a constant, gruesome and desperate combat with the world-wide and all-pervading maladies produced everywhere by atomic radiations when this earth will be changed into a vast asylum of radiation-ailments in which the mean of medicines shall be discerned as the panic-strikers unsuccessfully avoiding the wailing clamorous of a world of miserable and cancer-ridden patients and spurning at the outrageous sally of those clutching at their stained apparel.
The fusion process of generating the atomic energy is free from radiations. Were this fusion process of any practical use it could have been deemed as a God-sent boon by a power-hungry mankind in a time of urgent need, but alas, the atomic energy was not meant to be a boon, it was not created to serve the purpose of energy, but rather it was meant to be a punishment and retribution. The fusion process is not possible without the radiation -emitting fission process. Also, the temperatures at which the fusion process is possible are such as may reduce every earthly substance to gaseous state. The fusion fire could not simply be contained on earth.
Limits of Man's Control Over Radiations:
Now, then, after having known the extent of man's knowledge of radiations in reference to Radiobiology, and having known also the established varieties of radiations , let us see the limits of man's control over radiations and their effects. We will thereafter leave the reader to make his own judgment in the light of those variable facts, if there existed any plausibility in the adoption go atomic energy in such a situation, or was mankind determined to play the blind and ignore every warning.
a. The emission of radiation cannot be segregated or stopped during the generation of atomic energy.
b. Sources of atomic energy could be covered. The employees of the atomic energy plants could also be provided with radiation-proof dresses. But neither the possibility of the leakage and explosion of the atomic energy plants be eliminated, nor the entire population of the world could furnished with the means of protection against the variant radiations. The state will certainly worsen in a future age of full-fledged atomic energy, when the sources of atomic energy will be various, and wide-spread and the leakage and explosions of atomic plants will be frequent.
c. Standards of permissive dose are no doubt set, but what means are to stop the penetration of radiation in a body after the standard level has entered a body. There simply exists no means to that effect, except indeed by avoiding the radiations, but how to avoid the radiations when the covered sources of radiations are liable to leakage and explosion and every individual in the world cannot possibly be covered against radiations. To simply calculate therefore the amount of permissive dose is of little avail in practice unless some sure means of protection are there worst still is the case of the global radiological hazard from thermo nuclear bombs in test explosions or actual atomic war. This fallout spreads itself all over the earth and contaminates every place with radiopacity. This is a case in which even if every individual member of man-kind is covered materially against radiation, the arrangement would prove useless because the sources of water and the plants and crops are made radioactive and the hazard becomes effective through ingestion and inhalation. The protection of populations from the radiological hazard of the fallout thus is not a possibility. The scientists have set a limit to the number of test explosion. If the number of test explosions exceeds that limit then according to the scientists the hazard of radioactivity would be substantial to the entire mankind. But a doomed race has paid little heed to their timely warning, and test explosions continue without any regard to the warning of the scientists or the general health of mankind. This source of the hazards, however, is nothing in comparison to that radio-anarchy which is likely to prevail in the world in the form of raging storm of radiations in the future age of full-fledged atomic-energy-for-peace, who amidst a raging battle cares about little formalities and who cares that the amount of permissive dose set at present in the manner of a sheer conjecture may prove erroneous and disastrous when the actual results appear after generations hence. But the present laughter has the present mirth. Let this present generation enjoy the fruits of atomic energy and who knows about tomorrow. When future generations will come they will themselves pay the genetic debt in addition to several other kinds of debt? The bone of the present generation might by then have been reduced to dust. Time is great judge. It is slow in giving its judgment, but particularly in the case of the effects of atomic energy it seems slower still. It is only after the lapse of several generations that its verdict will appear in a practical form. And then there will be no chance of repentance. The sentence will prove final. It makes one said to see how the health, wealth, life, joy hope and all is being pawned with such indifference and in such utter folly.
d. Once some radioactive substance has entered a body, it settles in the bone marrow and it is impossible to expel it thence and there it remains at perfect leisure to cause bone cancers and malignant tumors. It settles in the bone with such tenacity that even after the individual is long dead its bones click to the Geiger counter.
e. When the cell has been attacked by radiation nothing could be done either to avoid or to cure the injury. Whether the cell is killed or mutilated or whether it survives is a question of its own ability and the lethal efficacy of radiation. Man himself hitherto is quite helpless in the conflict. He has no power to affect the response of the cell to radiation.
f. As regards radiation-sickness the situation is equally hopeless. No therapeutic measures have hitherto been found of any avail in case of radiation sickness. If infection which is a particular characteristic of radiation- sickness were the cause of death, the effect of antibiotics, which have been found to be very effective otherwise, is far from spectacular in the infection of radiation-sickness. If the cause of death were anemia, which is particular feature of radiation-sickness, then blood transfusions ought to prevent it, but in practice no increase in survival or even significant increase in the time between and death is found by giving intensive transfusions. Neither the antibiotics increase resistance of the animals to a lethal dose, nor blood transfusions help them out of the trouble and the lethal dose proves lethal with the inevitability of fate. Prompt treatment of infections may be of some help, but on the whole the outcome is almost entirely dependent on the makeup of the individual, and apart from rather obvious medical measures there is little scope for the physicians to influence the course of illness. It is difficult even to predict the course and outcome of radiation-treatment. And yet in spite of tall this the recommendations of adoption of atomic energy are forthcoming in the name of peace, and for the sake of prosperity.
g. Radiation causes gene mutations and nothing could be done. Gene mutations are transmitted to future generations and nothing could be done. Recessive genes make their existence manifest in abnormal births and nothing at all could be done. The abnormalities multiply through marriage and nothing, absolutely nothing could be done. Abnormalities assume chimerical forms and again nothing could be done. Genetic damage of radiation is irreversible and irreparable. Repair and restitution cannot occur as they do in radiation-sickness, and this is the most ugly feature of the whole radio-calamity. How then against all this certainty of the radio-disaster the use of atomic-energy-for-peace is recommended, and why the atomic-energy-for-peace is cherished, could only be explained by those who recommend it or those who adopt it. Mankind has to sink with the boat now cared by a few enthusiasts, singing all the while their song of deadly mirth in a drunken state and steering blindly into the stormy pacific of nuclear death.
h. Radiation today is acclaimed as the sure, universal remedy for cancer. Apart from the fact that radiation does not cure cancer, it only destroys it there is every possibility of recurrence. The fact that the redundance of radiation in the age of atomic energy will mean a comparative redundancy of cancer--- for radiation not only cures cancer, it also causes it ---- is completely ignored and who in spite of every sympathy with unfortunate patients of cancer will not be moved to tears at such gross neglect of the dictates of sagacity by those that are to be considered as the beacons of light in this age of knowledge and science. Tears these days are a thing of rarity and are nowhere shed. Sorrow, however and anxiety could be found in relative abundance. The point is, how nay one can fail to picture the age of atomic energy as the age of cancer-ridden chimeras.
i. Then there is the idea of prophylactic measures, the idea of administering a chemical substance with a view to influencing the development of radiation injury at one of the many stages prior to the appearance of the harmful effects of radiation. These substances are believed to work only if given before irradiation, and have no effect whatsoever if administered afterwards, even if only seconds have elapsed. Moreover they are more active within a few minutes of the Radiation, and only one or two can be taken as long as an hour beforehand. Systeine is the compound used for this purpose. Becaptan is another one discovered by the Belgian scientist Z. M. Bacq. The scientists lament that it is both a disappoint and a surprise that in spite of the great efforts which have been made, no substance has yet been found which is more effective than cysteine, the very first compound ever to be tried for this purpose. The disappointment and surprise of the scientist in this matter may perhaps be justifiable but equably justified would be the surprise and disappoint of anyone at the disappointment and surprise of the scientist in this matter. One finds it hard to believe one's own eyes to see the same man building with one hand the atomic bombs rolling with his other hand becaptan and cysteins into pills as the antidotes for the atomic bombs. Men highly talented and fully acquainted with the ways of research in science only could reconcile themselves to this idea which is but a novelty to any simple layman. Without any hesitation and indeed without finding it necessary to expend words on the probable utility of any such protectors as becaptan and cysteine and the like in the event of the atomic war or in the epoch of atomic-energy-for-peace, the most that could be said about cysteine is that it bears a vocal resemblance to the name of great Einstein while becaptan shows a resemblance to the word picadon, the Japanese word for the atomic bomb. The world can no doubt cry cysteine to the atomic bombs and yell becaptan against picadon to ensure safety.
j. Then there is the eternal nuisance of the radioactive residue of the atomic plants. Burying it in the ground, casting it into the river or depositing it into the seas, all have proved equally futile and the hazard of radioactivity is there. Clamourous complaints and heated protests of the afflicted and frightened neighboring districts are on ever increase and offer a perpetual headache to the authorities, in case these materials are deposited into the sea, the creatures of sea are affected by radioactivity and are soon seen floating on the surface of water dead as if in a mute protest against the folly of a callous-minded mankind. If this then be the condition now that there are but a few atomic reactors functioning throughout the world, that shall be the condition of the world when myriads of atomic plants of many varieties will be functioning and excreting heaps of radioactive wastes everywhere. Whichever way one cares to look on the subject of atomic energy it appears as a curse and chastisement more than it seems a blessing. The only justifiable and scientific conclusion is the postponement of the adoption of atomic energy till full control over the subject is achieved, full protection to every individual human-being, animal and plant against radiation is guaranteed, and sure cure for radiation-sickness is discovered by accomplishing control over nuclear regions and by understanding the nuclear science completely. The remoteness of such a probability, however, is known to some knowledgeable scientists. The rest are only playing the tool and the ostrich. No control on and no protection against radiation at present is there, and the fact is being overlooked due to a hope of one day finding the solution of the problem though they have no faith in miracles. As regards atomic weapons all the world is agreed as to their undesirability, due to the knowledge of their all-annihilating and pernicious nature, what obstruction there is then to the restriction of the weapons before they have destroyed the world. Is then an example more glaring of ostriching needed?