Page 4-Friday, July 27, 1979-The Michigan Daily
THE ANTI-NUKE DIET
Michigan Daily Preventing radiation damag
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial Freedom
ROWN RICE, miso soup,
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI. 48109 Bbeansprouts, seaweed, green By MARY BLAKEMAN months, McCluskey was given
vegetables, fruit and sunflower and other seaweeds like dulse specially produced zinc DTPA
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 53-S News Phone: 764-0552 seeds. It may not sound very ap provide an abundant source of (diethylenetriamine pentate
petizing to most American minerals-iodine, potassium, th icium.
Edited and managed by students palates, but according to a calcium-which can help protect theamericium.slevelseofyradiati
t the University of Mihigan g number of heal ac- the body and limit the absorption wer swveed tor diat on finally
tivistsuchaeati-ncar of radioactive elements. People he was allowed to return home.
movement, such a diet may be can also protect themselves by His docowe retin
h r e e reports that the 67-year-old Mc-
post-Harrisburg ncerae other things that trigger ancer
Thoghth mdialestablish- Pectin in foods such as fruit Cluskey stopped the DTPA
. ment puts little stock in the con- and sunflower seeds has also treatments FARlast M can tell e
(' C n a e v id nection between what people eat exhibited an effect on strontium. treatment has been a per centt ef-
V and their ability to withstand During the early sixties, Russian fete Dr. brenstein sas
nuclear radiation, some scien- scientists reported that pectin ex- b etill ha. Bres en osays,
RESIDENT CARTER'S energy program is tists are beginning to take a tracted from sunflower seeds but he still has a large burden of
appearing more like a joke each day. Of serious look at the possibilities, reduced the absorption and reasoably well,but we dn
Corsth robedpesdnti ntsoey o What they have found is in- deposition of strontium 90t in the knw hacolhpenite
course, the troubled president is not solely to riguing, and tends to support skeletons of testranimals. know what could happen in the
blame for the difficulties his plan has encountered some of the non-scientific eviden- An earlier report by the U.S. future.M
in Congress. Members of the lower house must ce. Army Quartermaster Food and In the McCluskey case, DTPA
consider themselves culpable for the latest stroke THE NOTION that diet may Container Institute showed that proved useful-but it is unlikely
of non-leadership. have a protective or rehabilitative supplementing the diet of guinea o the popultion at lage in he
effect on persons exposed to pigs with green vegetables such toentofuraion actieexposure
It seemed after Mr. Carter delivered his famednuclear radiaion firssurfaced acabbageroccolss eventoh radioactive exposure
nuclar aditio fist srfaed s cbbae orbrocol enan-Public health officials are muh
Sunday night speech that legislators were taking among Japanese survivors of the ced the survival of irradiated morelik helto o assim
the chief executive seriously for a change. But in- bombing of Hiroshima and animals while the use of beets did more likely to turn potassium
stead of responding to his call for unified action to Nagasaki. In the current issue of not." The 1958 study concluded as a precaution against
alleviate the oil dependence crisis, the House has the East West Journal, Dr. Tat- that "feeding of cabbage both radio tive i in131onsidere
mired the president's standby gas rationing plan suichiro Akizuki attributes his before and after radiation ex- especially hazardous since the
in amendments which will make invoking such in Nagasaki to a diet which in- poure proedthe g thyroid gland has a special af-
iNaaaitaditwihi-amount of protection.' finity for the element, and it i-an
measures extremely difficult. eluded the combination of brown THIS APPARENT protective endyngr goe lren.
Requiring two votes before any rationinag plan is rice, salt and miso soup, and ability of green plants is also at- endanger growing children.
implemented only slows the process of responding which strictly eliminated sugar. tributed to sprouted seeds, such inn
Miso is a form of fermented soy as alfalfa or wheat which area ve
to an emergency situation when it arises, beans which has a high mineral high in chlorophyll. Wheat grass, concentration of radioactive
Allowing Congress to examine any plan that is content. which is grown by sprouting iodine by saturating the gland
devised before enactment could mean a crucial "I had fed my co-workers wheat berries, is gaining atten- posium onrioie explins
setback to responsible action in a crisis. brown rice and miso soup for tion from unorthodox health cir- ( potassium iodide), explains
Congress may not think much of President Car- some time before the bombing. dges and established doctors alike manerfor Environmental
ter, his policies, or leadership. But is political af- of them sufred rom for itstbeneficial effects-wh Health and Safety at attell
finity necessary to recognize the need to prepare says, "I believe this is because radiation d pThe result of the gland being
for an energy emergency? The specal interests they had been eating misosoup." Dr. Chiu-Nan Lai of the saturated is that it can t pick up
these legislators could be protecting by not ad- "The radioactivity may not University of Texas System Can- additional iodne.t
vocating a standby rationing plan are not even have been a fatal dose," he adds,c er Center reported in Science Asl lerc tof the
but I, and other staff members News that extracts of wheat population is allergic to iodine,
clear. They have rejected one plan, refused to and in-patients kept on living 0 sprouts exhibit antagonistic ac- icautions Dr. C. C. Lushbaugh,
come up with their own, and now have handicap- the lethal ashes of the bombed tivity toward known car-medical director of Oak Ridge
ped instituting another administration draft. Are ruins. It was thanks to this salt cinogens., Ten., Associated Universities.
these people responsible representatives? mineral method that all of us Betsty Russell, who dispensed You dont just have everybody
The outlook for coming to grips with the energy ..o survived the disaster free wheat grass juice at a recent San But whether one pops a pill or
crisis is quite grim, when those invested with the severe symptoms of Francisco anti-nuclear rally turns to a macrobiotic diet, the
radioactivity. claimed that "it's much more ef-
powers to do so are bridled by indecisiveness and OTHERS WHO LIvED through fective to use it before exposure. chances of warding off the effects
inaction. No matter what these legislators think of the bombing of Hiroshima say but since wheat grass juice of high level radiation through
other specifics included in the president's energy their traditional macrobiotic rebuilds cells and detoxifies the Much more important, says
package, it seems they could assure the citizenry diet, which emphasizes whole body, it's something the people in Richard Penberth proj
of their concern about the situation. Without that, he ao urvivegbowever, no one Harrisburg can use right now. director of thhe Center for inter-
the so-called crisis of confidence is sure to endure. has collected conclusive data to ADVOCATES OF natural sub- national Environment Infor-
show that people on macrobiotic stances as protection from mation in Washington, D.C.. is to
diets had a higher survival rate radiation point out that the use of know the nature and seriousness
than others. certain foods is most effective of the hazard.
What is known is that certain when incorporated into the POWER PLANTS can release
foods act as "chelators" to help regular diet-not as a quick fix an array of different isotopes
remove radioactive material remedy. While there is some which pose various health
from the body. Chelators com- evidence to support their claims, threats. A variety of responses
bine with radioactive elements to most medical doctors remain could be appropriate. They range
j-form stable compounds in the skeptical about the correlation from evacuation to the quaran-
body which can then be between diet and radiation. tining of food and distribution of
eliminated. Despite the skepticism regar- potassium iodide.
A British study. published in ding natural foods, medical "You have to know the exact
the International Journal of science puts great store in natue of the exposure." Penber-
Radiation Biology in 1971, showed chemical substances which act as thy says, "and the best way for
that kelp effectively removed effective chelators in certain high people to protect themselves is to
strontium 90 from the body. "The exposure cases. make demands on the operator of
alginate preparation (OG1) One such case is that of Harold the nuclear facility to report
reduced the absorption and McCluskey, a former chemical exactly the percentage of release
retention of strontium about 4- operator at the Hanford Nuclear and what kind of release it is.
fold," the report states. Reservation in Washington, who "You've got to demand a war-
ANNAI~iSA KENNEDY, an an- was exposed to radioactive con- ning system, demand an
ti-nuclear activist with Oregon's tamination in an explosion at the evacuation if necessary. and
Trojan Decommissioning Allian- plant in 1976. He breathed in the demand that civil defense tell you
ce, says that kelp can be used highest recorded human dose of how to clean up."
daily, like salt, in salads and the isotope americium 242-400
cooking. "The best way to protect times what an average adult
yourself is to join the anti-nuclear might receive ina lifetime. MyBl aknan is Puaci Ne"i
Twe cnrina srwecxcasmovement" . she says, t but kelp. . .3 mt.ip, rear, sPlato.o-,fjyes ie?/m