UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
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BERKELEY · DAVIS · IRVINE · LOS ANGELES · RIVERSIDE · SAN DIEGO · SAN FRANCISCO  [UC Seal]  SANTA BARBARA · SANTA CRUZ
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                                        BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA  94720

          Key Facts Justifying Opposition to Nuclear Pollution at
          Any Level: A Brief Letter of Concern
          February 6, 2001

          To Whom It May Concern:

              In 1963, the Atomic Energy Commission requested that
          I establish the Biomedical Research Division at its
          Livermore National Laboratory. I served as its first
          Director, and as an Associate Director of the entire
          LNL. In 1973, I returned to my professorship at the
          University of California, Berkeley. My own research into
          the health hazards from human exposure to ionizing
          radiation continues to this very day. My most recent
          monograph on the topic was published in November 1999:
          "Medical Radiation in the Pathogenesis of Cancer and
          Ischemic Heart Disease."

              The topic of this letter is the fact that there
          exists no threshold dose of ionizing radiation below
          which natural repair, of radiation damage to the genetic
          molecules, always occurs perfectly.

              Until 1990, it was often written that it was
          scientifically impossible to settle the threshold issue,
          and might remain so. My 1990 monograph, "Radiation-
	  Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure," showed how it is
	  possible to settle the issue scientifically, by
	  combining existing evidence from irradiated humans and
	  from the physics of ionizing radiation. My monograph
          proved, by any reasonable standard of biomedical proof,
          that there is no threshold dose with respect to causing
          carcinogenic mutations.

              In short, a single x-ray photon or the radioactive
          decay of a single atom is physically capable of causing
          permanent and consequential mutations --- including
          mutations which cause cancer. The chance that this will
          occur is proportional to dose, right down to zero dose.
          Subsequently, monographs by others in this field have
          reached the same conclusion. For example, in 1995, the
          British government's National Radiological Protection
          Board issued its monograph, "Risk of Radiation-Induced
          Cancer at Low Doses and Low Dose Rates." It concludes
          that "the weight of the evidence, in respect of the
          induction of the majority of common human tumours, falls
          decisively in favor of the thesis that, at low doses and
          low dose rates, tumorigenic risk rises as a simple
          function of dose without a low dose interval within
          which risk may be discounted." No threshold.

              It follows from the absence of any safe dose that
          citizens everywhere have a strong scientific basis for
          opposing activities which can cause radioactive
          pollution at any level. The fact that humans cannot
          escape exposure to ionizing radiation, from various
          natural sources, is no reason to let human activities
          increase the exposure. Moreover, the record of
          governments and their licensed agents has often been
          horrible regarding containment of radioactive poisons.
          This record argues strongly against confidence in any
          promises of future containment.

                       Very truly yours,


                       John W. Gofman, M.D, Ph.D.
              Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology, UCB