Life Sciences Division

Human and environmental nuclear toxicology: state-of-the-art review co-published by the CEA and the IRSN

CEA

How do the major stable or radioactive naturally-occurring or anthropic elements found in the environment go on to interact with living organisms? What do we know about their proven or potential effects on human health and on ecosystems? What resources are available for detecting them, or for depolluting contaminations? All these questions are addressed in a new collectively-authored book entitled Toxicologie nucléaire environnementale et humaine [Human and environmental nuclear toxicology] that has just been published by Editions Lavoisier. This round-up, drafted by teams from the CEA and the French national institute for radioprotection and nuclear safety (IRSN), integrates the latest cutting-edge results from nuclear toxicology and ecotoxicology research, and is well set to become the new French-language reference textbook on these scientific disciplines*.

Over a hundred CEA et and the IRSN research scientists with multidisciplinary backgrounds (from biologists to physical chemists to geochemists) cross-fertilized their approaches to produce a new international state-of-the-art publication targeted towards a readership of students, researchers and engineers working within the broader field of environmental and healthcare science. The 37-chapter book is organized on a backbone of five core sections and focused on the major stable or radioactive elements liable to be released into the environment due to past or present nuclear activity. This ‘blacklist’ encompasses uranium, plutonium, caesium, iodine, cadmium, selenium, cobalt, tritium and carbon-14. Most of these elements occur naturally in trace amounts in nature, but their use for a range of nuclear-industry applications, such as research, medicine or the nuclear fuel cycle, can, in some cases, lead to higher-than-natural concentrations in certain environments. This makes it critical to understand the mechanisms of interaction with living organisms in different ecosystems in order to comprehensively evaluate and pinpoint the potential exposure to environmental and health risks. This is the task assigned to the CEA and IRSN toxicology and ecotoxicology research programmes initiated in 2001**. The results of this research are integrated alongside other results from the international science community in a highly readable book drafted for a readership encompassing students and professionals working in the field. (Download the order form)

To mark the release, the CEA and the IRSN have organized a tie-in event on 18 September 2009 at the French Natural History Museum, which will host a scientific open-day along the theme of human and environmental nuclear toxicology. Chairpersons for the event will be Catherine Césarsky, High-Commissioner for Atomic Energy, and Agnès Buzyn, Chair of the IRSN Board of Trustees. The event will provide the two institutions with an opportunity to outline the main threads of the book.

* Until now, the reference conspectus on this field of research has been the second edition of “Toxiques nucléaires” [Nuclear toxins], by P. Galle, published by Editions Masson (2001).

** The aim of the CEA’s “Nuclear Toxicology” research programme is to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms  mobilized when contact is made with these various stable and/or radioactive elements, and to determine the defence strategies employed at the various scale-levels of the living world, i.e. “from bacteria to man”. The IRSN’s EnvirHom programme is geared towards studying the environmental and public-health consequences of chronic exposure to radioactive substances.