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Effects of Atomic Radiation: a Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 155: 725

William J. Schull. 397 pp. John Wiley and Sons, Toronto. 1995. Distributed in Canada by the Canadian Medical Association, Ottawa. $60.95 ($51.95 CMA members). ISBN 0-471-12524-5

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Overall rating: Excellent

Strengths: Very readable; carefully crafted to maximize ease of understanding; enhanced by a chronology of major events, a glossary and reference notes; essential facts and conclusions clearly identified and conveniently cross-referenced

Weaknesses: None

Audience: Epidemiologists, family physicians, geneticists, health physicists, nuclear medicine practitioners, nuclear safety engineers, oncologists, radiation biologists, radiation protection technologists and radiologists

This book is a superb account of the epidemiological and other multidisciplinary studies, conducted by US and Japanese specialists, involving survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These studies examined and evaluated the morbidity and mortality among most of the survivors who were exposed to radiation, including those exposed prenatally.

The book is an extremely well written, very readable, comprehensive and insightful distillation of the main findings of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (which operated from 1947 to 1975) and its successor, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. Details of the studies conducted by the commission and the foundation are recorded in more than 800 technical reports; this book presents Dr. William J. Schull's personal interpretation of the significant data derived from these studies and their relevance to current issues in diagnostic, therapeutic and occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. It is truly a contribution of the highest quality to the vast literature on the biological and medical effects of exposure. Much of the existing literature may well require dust covers when the comprehensiveness and excellence of Schull's book become widely known.

Although he is a medical scientist, Schull is gifted with the writing style of a skilled author and the explanatory capability of a wise teacher. The technical breadth and accuracy of the text also benefitted considerably from the contributions of 42 of Schull's colleagues and from the wordsmithing of his wife and three other editors. However, only someone who has devoted a lifetime of effort to the subject could contribute the consistency of the technical development and the explanations of the meaning and significance of interrelated information that characterize this book. It is a remarkable example of what dedicated and enlightened people can contribute to society.

Jon H.F. Jennekens, OC, FCAE, PEng
Former president
Atomic Energy Control Board
Former deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards
International Atomic Energy Agency
Chairman
Technical Advisory Panel on Nuclear Safety
Ontario Hydro
Ottawa, Ont.

| CMAJ September 15, 1996 (vol 155, no 6) / JAMC le 15 septembre 1996 (vol 155, no 6) |