Are we starting to glow from the uranium in our environment?

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Citation of this page: Jouko Tuomisto: Arsenic to Zoonoses. Opasnet 2024. [1]. Accessed 18 Apr 2024. This page has also been published elsewhere: 100 kysymystä ympäristöstä ja terveydestä: arsenikista öljyyn. Kustannus Oy Duodecim, Helsinki 2005. ISBN 951-656-221-3.
Upload data	Unlike most other pages in Opasnet, the nuggets have predetermined authors, and you cannot freely edit the contents. Note! If you want to protect the nugget you've created from unauthorized editing click here Chapters in the book Arsenic to Zoonoses: Perception of the risks around us Is it the final straw that breaks the camel’s back? Is expert jargon just a way to confuse the man in the street? What is the wisdom in “It’s the dose that determines that a thing is not a poison”? What is a “chemical” after all? Is it more dangerous for us than for our ancestors? Are the risks of the domestic and the workplace environments different? Is man defiled by what goes to his mouth? What is safe to drink? Does water chlorination cause cancer? Are blue-green algae a risk to your life or at least to your liver? Does aluminium cause dementia? Arsenic in the drinking water – reminiscent of the movie “Lavender and old lace”? Are we starting to glow from the uranium in our environment? Fluoride – friend or foe? Blind drunk – or dead drunk? What is really dangerous in our diet? Should we be concerned about the amounts of additives in our diet? May even our cooking habits hurt us? Why not re-freeze thawed out frozen food? The dirty dozen – not just an old movie? Where do the dioxins come from? Are the dioxins the most dangerous chemicals in our environment? Are the PCB compounds really super-poisons? What on earth is PBDE? What are the hormonal disrupters? Tin poisoning – wasn’t even grandma’s copper kitchenware tin-plated? Are heavy metals still a problem today? Is mercury a quicksilver bullet or a slow poison? If this kills insects, what effect is it having on me? The whole field was brown-coloured; should you even go near it let alone eat anything growing there? Should we only eat “organic” products? Isn’t it safe to eat everything that grows naturally? Is it safe to eat wherever it’s convenient? What if alcohol were treated as a chemical contaminant in food? A favourite of children - and some adults too Can even a child’s toy be dangerous? How does the environment affect the child in the womb? Is impregnated wood safe in my garden or children’s playground? Can you catch toxoplasmosis from cat litter? What are children’s waterproof clothes made of? Are people too clean for their own good? Are cosmetics chemicals? Should we have antibiotic chemicals present in everyday domestic items? How safe are detergents? Can noise cause true health problems? Is allergy more common today? A healthy suntan – or is it? Should solariums carry a health warning? The air that we breathe What’s wrong with the air in our cities? People don’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning any more – do they? Can the air go up in flames? Ozone – I thought it was the hole in the ozone layer that we need to worry about? Should we go back to heating our homes with wood-burning stoves? Climate change – will it affect our health? Is formaldehyde another type of formalin? Benzene – isn’t it only found in chemistry sets? Can environmental cigarette smoke cause lung cancer? Is there radiation in my home? Do we need to monitor the quality of the air in our homes? How can a building become sick? Do our recreational pastimes require special ventilation systems? Is asbestos still a problem today? What happens when a building suffers moisture damage? Legionnaires’ disease – why should I worry, I’m not in the Foreign Legion? How do air fresheners really work? How to protect our common environment? Why is it worth investing in environmental protection? Indigenous populations live in harmony with their environment, don’t they? Environmental equilibrium and chemicals – impossible or not? Down the drain – is it a case of out of sight, out of mind? Should we compost all our household waste? Does it make sense to burn our domestic waste in power stations? Is clean energy from biomass a myth? Which type of energy production is friendliest to human health? What was the impact of the Chernobyl disaster in Europe? Is it safe to live close to polluted land? Does environmental protection also mean improved health? If we care about our environment, should we all be vegetarians? Which environmental factors increase my blood pressure? Here a risk, there a risk, everywhere risks, risks! Are there problems in the present risk assessment practices? What is risk management? What are the most common misconceptions about risks held by the man in the street? Why are experts usually so sceptical? Why do different people rate different risks so differently? Can you lessen your own personal chemical burden? Why are people afraid of dental amalgam? What do we mean by the term “life cycle analysis”? The precautionary principle – better safe than sorry? Are GM foods Frankenfoods? Mutagenesis, carcinogenesis and other scary words – what do they really mean? Which type of radiation poses the greatest threat to our health? Are most cancers caused by exposures to chemicals? Is cancer more common today than it was in the past? We breathe oxygen; it can’t be dangerous, can it? Why are animal experiments still needed? Are electric lines and transformers dangerous? How dangerous is it to use a mobile phone? We are surrounded by risks but which of them should we take seriously? Are inhabitants of different countries exposed to different risks? Before we go on holiday which environmental health precautions should we take? Should risk assessment be more transparent? Is environmental science just another religion? What happens if the human race presses the self-destruct button?

Uranium in drinking water is a relatively recent concern, and Finland and Canada have been active in attempts to shed light on the risks of uranium exposure. The World Health Organisation has raised international awareness of this issue. The old limit values were based on radioactivity, but it is now appreciated that chemical toxicity is more important as a health risk.

The World Health Organisation re-evaluated uranium recently. Now the basis was its chemical toxicity, and the new recommendation for the limit value is 0.015 mg/l, while the previous value based on radioactivity was 0.1 mg/l. The radiation risk is not considered so high. The same applies for so called depleted uranium, whose radioactivity is lower than that of natural uranium. Its main problem is also chemical toxicity, not radioactivity.

The most important adverse effect of natural uranium is kidney toxicity, and this is the present basis for the health risk assessment. Some physiological changes have been detected in the users of tube wells in regions where there are uranium rich bedrocks. For example, increased excretion of calcium and phosphate to urine has been detected. The real implications for health are not yet known, and these continue to be studied.

There may be other adverse effects. An association with increased blood pressure has been observed. Uranium is concentrated in the bones and may cause structural changes in bone. It is not known if natural uranium can cause cancer. There is enough information already to limit exposure to uranium as much as possible. It does seem to be a problem in drinking waters in many parts of Europe.

Uranium in drinking water was revealed as a problem only recently when it was realized that its chemical toxicity is more important than its radioactive properties.

One level up: Is man defiled by what goes to his mouth?

Previous chapter: Arsenic in the drinking water – reminiscent of the movie “Lavender and old lace”?

Next chapter: Fluoride – friend or foe?

Are we starting to glow from the uranium in our environment?

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