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Auflistung nach Autor:in "Kusmierz, Ralf"

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  • Konferenzbeitrag
    Is the human sex odds at birth distorted in the vicinity of nuclear facilities (NF)? A preliminary geo-spatial-temporal approch
    (Integration of Environmental Information in Europe, 2010) Kusmierz, Ralf; Voigt, Kristina; Scherb, Hagen
    The trend in the human sex odds at birth in Europe was significantly distorted after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident (ChNPP), and childhood cancers are significantly increased in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants (NPP). Therefore, the question arises whether the human sex odds at birth is also distorted in the vicinity of nuclear reactors and nuclear storage or processing facilities (NF). In this paper we investigate the feasibility of an ecological study based on official gender specific annual birth data of all municipalities of Belgium, Switzerland, and the following parts of Germany: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. The analyses involve 316 360 municipality- or district-years, with 22 643 476 live births and an overall sex odds (SO = male live births/female live births) of 1.0546. During the operation time periods of the ascertained 28 NF in Germany and Switzerland, lagging for gestation period, and within 5 km distance from these sites, there is a non-significantly increased sex odds with a sex odds ratio (SOR) vs. the remainder of the study region and non-operational time periods of SOR5km = 1.0056, p = 0.3615. However, within the distances of 15 km, 30 km, and 50 km, we may observe more precisely estimated elevated sex odds ratios: SOR15km = 1.0040, p = 0.0463, SOR30km = 1.0035, p = 0.0026, and SOR50km = 1.0017, p = 0.0567. A significant Rayleigh function (p=0.0023) with mode at 14.4 km, 95%-CI = [10.9 km, 29.3 km], yields a SORpeak = 1.0051. Moreover, there is a reciprocal distance association (1/r) of the sex odds beyond 10 km distance from NF, p = 0.0016. Therefore, evidence of a far-reaching genetic effect in the vicinity of 28 NF in Germany and in Switzerland is achieved. Further studies in this important area of environmental health research are recommended.
  • Konferenzbeitrag
    Nuclear Energy: Danger Only in Case of Accidents?
    (Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Environmental Informatics - Informatics for Environmental Protection, Sustainable Development and Risk Management, 2014) Scherb, Hagen; Voigt, Kristina; Kusmierz, Ralf
    The environmental impacts of nuclear energy are highly underestimated. Nuclear weapons, atomic bomb tests, and nuclear accidents are considered a danger for the environment and a human cancer risk. However, childhood leukemia is consistently elevated near nuclear power plants and the Chernobyl accident entailed elevated human birth sex ratios across Europe. We studied the annual sex ratio near nuclear facilities in Germany, France, and Switzerland at the municipality level. We will demonstrate that low doses of ionizing radiation cause effects in human beings. This is shown by strongly consistent spatial-temporal shifts in the human sex ratio trends in the vicinity of nuclear facilities. In the chosen countries complete official data on over 70 million gender specific annual births at the municipality level are available. By Lambert-93 coordinates (France) and GK3 coordinates (Germany, Switzerland) we determined the minimum distances of municipalities from major nuclear facilities. Spatial-temporal trend analyses of the annual sex ratio depending on municipalities’ minimum distances from nuclear facilities were carried out. Applying ordinary linear logistic regression (jump or broken-stick functions) and non-linear logistic regression (Rayleigh functions) we demonstrate that the sex ratio at birth shows the influence of mutagenic ionizing radiation on human health. As important environmental chemical contaminants are also mutagenic, the usefulness of the sex ratio at birth as a genetic health indicator can be inferred by analogy.
  • Konferenzbeitrag
    Sex Odds an Important Indicator for Changes in Environmental Health
    (EnviroInfo Dessau 2012, Part 1: Core Application Areas, 2012) Voigt, Kristina; Scherb, Hagen; Kusmierz, Ralf
    The aim of our research is to investigate sex odds trends in the vicinity of nuclear facilities and chemical plants in Germany. We collected human sex odds data from the nineteen fiftieth till 2010. To assess time trends in the occurrence of boys among all live births, and to investigate whether there have been significant changes in the trend functions after distinct chemical or radiological events, we applied ordinary linear logistic regression. We give two examples, one for the trend in the human sex odds around the nuclear storage site TBL Gorleben and the second one around the chemical plant Hoechst-Griessheim after an accident in 1993. Both events (storage of nuclear casks as well as accidental release of chemicals) had a strong influence on the human sex odds at birth.