The local health impacts of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.Cancer epidemiology in areas adjacent to the Semipalatinsk test site,Kazakhstan

摘要

The subject of the book"The local health impacts of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.Cancer epidemiology in areas adjacent to the Semipalatinsk test site,Kazakhstan"by Bauer deals with the analysis of carcinogenic effects among residents of Kazakhstan and Russia(Altai Region)who lived close to the Semipalatinsk test site(STS)and received combined(external and internal)exposures of ionizing radiation over a wide range of doses.The results of the study are of considerable interest for understanding effects of small radiation doses.Bauer has summarized the results of investigations that were performed on cohorts exposed to fallout close to the Nevada test site and the Marshall Islands,as well as those exposed around the STS,and she also presents data from her own studies of cancer mortality,viz.,for the exposed Kazakhstan cohort,and for the Altai Region population using a case-control study.The obvious merit of the book is the critical analysis of all phases of the studies,including identification of the cohorts,vital status follow-up,collection of data on cancer death cases,dose reconstruction,etc.,which have been conducted for many years by researchers of the Scientific Research Institute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology(Semipalatinsk,Kazakhstan)and the Institute for Regional Medico-Ecological Problems(Barnaul,Russia)with whom the author closely collaborated.To put her work into a broader historical context,the author has thoroughly traced the chronology of the studies that have been conducted for many years at the above-indicated research centers.