How Hiroshima survivors helped form radiation safety rules, and a path to stop plastic pollution

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Contributing Correspondent Dennis Normile talks about a long-term study involving the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Seventy-five years after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on the two cities in Japan, survivors are still helping scientists learn about the effects of radiation exposure. Also this week, Sarah talks with Winnie Lau, senior manager for preventing ocean plastics at Pew Charitable Trusts about her group’s paper about what it would take to seriously fight the flow of plastics into the environment. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF). [Image: MPCA Photos/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Dennis Normile Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:07.8	Icon Mount Sinai is the academic arm of the eight hospital Mount Sinai health system in New York City.
0:13.9	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding.
0:18.0	Researchers at Icon Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in many fields vital to
0:23.0	advancing the health of patients, including cancer, COVID and long COVID, cardiology, neuroscience, and
0:30.4	artificial intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:42.5	Thank you. medicine at Mount Sinai. We find a way. Welcome to the science podcast for July 24th, 2020. I'm Sarah Presby. First up this week,
0:48.9	contributing correspondent Dennis Normile talks about how international radiation safety regulations actually come out of a long-term
0:58.2	study of people exposed to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago.
1:05.8	Next, researcher Winnie Lau talks about a global approach putting a stop to plastic pollution.
1:12.1	I know we talk about where plastic shows up, how it ends up there, but now we're going to figure out how to stop it.
1:18.5	Her team's work shows that if the right steps are taken, plastic pollution could go down by 40% from today's level by 2040.
1:31.3	Now we have contributing correspondent Dennis Normile.
1:34.1	He wrote this week on how 75 years later,
1:37.4	the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1:41.4	have transformed the understanding of the effects of radiation exposure on health.
1:47.0	Hi, Dennis.
1:47.9	Hi, Sarah.
1:48.8	We're talking about a study now run by RERF, which is the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.
1:56.3	This is a very long-term study, as I mentioned, almost 75 years. And it's included many, many survivors
2:02.1	over 100,000. How exactly did this study get started all those years ago?
2:08.9	President Harry Truman authorized the launch of the study. It was in 1947. They were pretty much
	...

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