Some Comments about Dr. John Gofman's Earlier Work and Books.
o In 1972, Dr. Gofman shared the 1972 Stouffer Prize, one of the top
awards for research in combatting arteriosclerosis. The 1972 Prize
Committee was chaired by Professor Ulf S. von Euler, M.D., former
chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology and Medicine. The
Committee's citation:
"The 1972 Stouffer Prize is awarded to Dr. John W. Gofman for
pioneering work on the isolation, characterization and measurement of
plasma lipoproteins, and on their relationship to arteriosclerosis.
His methods and concepts have profoundly stimulated and influenced
further research on the cause, treatment, and prevention of
arteriosclerosis."
Radiation and Human Health. 1981. ISBN 0-87156-275-8.
o From the Journal of the American Medical Assn., March 19, 1982,
p.1637, a review by Victor E. Archer, M.D.: "This remarkable and
important book enables any intelligent person with a high school
education to understand the complexities involved in assessing the
risks to man from low levels of ionizing radiation. Gofman not only
demonstrates his mastery of this complex subject but carefully explains
the basic concepts of epidemiology, genetics, birth defects,
carcinogenesis, radiobiology, physics, chemistry and even mathematics,
which are necessary to an understanding of the subject."
Xrays--Health Effects of Common Exams. 1985. ISBN 0-87156-838.1.
E.O'Connor, co-author.
o From the New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 6, 1986, p.393, a
review by Maurice M. Greenfield, M.D. (radiologist): "This book is
practical and important. It is destined to represent a watershed in
the controversial field of low-dose radiobiology and will be of
inestimable value to radiologists, other physicians, dentists, and
patients."
o From the American Journal of Roentgenology, April 1986, p.774, a
review by David S. Martin: "From a radiologist's point of view, this
book represents a well organized and concise attempt to quantify the
cancer risk from diagnostic xray exposures by age, gender, organ, and
examination. As such, it is a useful starting point for comparisons."
Radiation-Induced Cancer from Low-Dose Exposure. 1990. ISBN 0-932682-89-8.
o From the New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 14, 1991, p.497, a
review by G. Theodore Davis, M.D., and Andre J. Bruwer, M.D.
(radiologist) of two books jointly: The 1990 book by Gofman (above)
and the 1990 BEIR-5 Report from the National Research Council, National
Academy Press: "Both these works agree that previous assessments of
the dangers of radiation underestimated the risk, but they reach
substantially different conclusions about the magnitude of the risk,
especially when the radiation is at lower doses (below 10 rem) and the
doses are delivered slowly ... We strongly recommend both these
excellent and timely books for physicians, engineers, and public health
officials concerned with radiation, the environment, and public health."
Preventing Breast Cancer. 1995. ISBN 0-932682-96-0 (Second Edition).
o From the Journal of the American Medical Assn. "Medical News &
Perspectives," August 2, 1995, a two-page feature (pp.367-368) by
Andrew A. Skolnick about Gofman's book: "A respected authority on the
biological effects of ionizing radiation has just published a book
claiming that the vast majority of breast cancers in the United States
were caused by ... medical xrays ..." Skolnick quotes from interviews
with the author and with critics of the book.
o On August 3, 1995, Channel 3 in Britain telecast a report ("The Xray
Effect") featuring the book's findings. The 1995 broadcast included
these statements:
"John Gofman is a superb analyst and has always been at the cutting
edge of medical science, particularly when it comes to protecting
people." o - Mortimer Mendelsohn, M.D., Ph.D., then Assoc. Director of
the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (the A-Bomb Survivor Study).
"Dr. Gofman is owed a debt of gratitude by the scientific community
because he was one of the first people to raise the issue of cancer
risks from radiation exposure." o - Edward P. Radford, M.D.,
epidemiologist and Chairman of the 1980 Committee on the Biological
Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR-3) of the National Academy of
Sciences, National Research Council.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
The Author's History, by Egan O'Connor John William Gofman is Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720-5706. He is also on the faculty at the University of California Medical School at San Francisco (UCSF). His life's work is divisible into three main areas, which converge for the first time in this monograph. Some of the earlier work is cited in the monograph's Reference List.
While a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley, Gofman earned his Ph.D. (1943) in nuclear/physical chemistry, with his dissertation on the discovery of Pa-232, U-232, Pa-233, and U-233, the proof that U-233 is fissionable by slow and fast neutrons, and discovery of the 4n + 1 radioactive series. His faculty advisor was Glenn T. Seaborg (who became Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, 1961-1971). Seaborg, Gofman, and Raymond W. Stoughton share Patent #3,123,535 on the slow and fast neutron fissionability of uranium-233, with its application to production of nuclear power or nuclear weapons. The work is recounted in Seaborg's book "Nuclear Milestones" (1972).
Post-doctorally, Gofman continued research related to the first atomic bombs --- particularly the chemistry of plutonium, at a time when the world's total supply was less than 0.25 milligram. He shares patents #2,671,251 and #2,912,302 on two processes for separating plutonium from the uranium and fission products of irradiated nuclear fuel. "We all were pushing the envelope in those years, and in the process, we learned the habit of observing details very closely."
After the plutonium work, Gofman completed medical school (1946) at UCSF, where the faculty and his classmates selected him to receive the annual Gold-Headed Cane Award for having the qualities of "a true physician."
In 1947, following his internship in Internal Medicine, Gofman joined the faculty at U.C. Berkeley (Division of Medical Physics), where he began his research on lipoproteins and Coronary Heart Disease at the Donner Laboratory. At the time, only two types of blood lipoproteins were known: Alpha and beta. By devising special flotation techniques with the ultracentrifuge, he and Frank T. Lindgren and co-workers at the Donner Lab began to reveal (1949-1950) the great diversity of very-low-density, intermediate-density, low-density, and high-density lipoproteins (VLDL, IDL, LDL, HDL) which truly exist in the bloodstream.
Their work on the chemistry of lipoproteins (e.g., the cholesterol-rich and triglyceride-rich varieties), and on dietary experiments, and on epidemiologic studies, soon produced evidence that high blood levels of the LDL, IDL, and VLDL lipoproteins are a risk-factor for Coronary Heart Disease.
In 1954, Gofman received the Modern Medicine Award for outstanding contributions to heart disease research. In 1965, he received the Lyman Duff Lectureship Award of the American Heart Association, for his research in atherosclerosis and Coronary Heart Disease. In 1972, he shared the Stouffer Prize for outstanding contributions to research in arteriosclerosis. In 1974, the American College of Cardiology selected him as one of twenty-five leading researchers in cardiology of the past quarter-century.
Meanwhile, in the early 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) asked Gofman to establish a Biomedical Research Division at the AEC's Livermore National Laboratory, for the purpose of evaluating the health effects of all types of nuclear activities. From 1963-1965, Gofman served as the division's first director and concurrently as an Associate Director of the full laboratory. Then he stepped down from the administrative activities in order to have more time for his own laboratory research on Cancer and chromosomes (the Boveri Hypothesis), on radiation-induced chromosomal mutations and genomic instability, and for his analytical work on the epidemiologic data from the Japanese atomic-bomb survivors and other irradiated human populations.
By 1969, Gofman and a Livermore colleague, Dr. Arthur R. Tamplin, had concluded that human exposure to ionizing radiation was much more serious than previously recognized. Because of this finding, Gofman and Tamplin spoke out publicly against two AEC programs which they had previously accepted. One was Project Plowshare, a program to explode hundreds or thousands of underground nuclear bombs in the Rock Mountains in order to liberate (radioactive) natural gas, and to use nuclear explosives also to excavate harbors and canals. The second was the plan to license about 1,000 commercial nuclear power plants (USA) as quickly as possible. In 1970, Gofman and Tamplin proposed a 5-year moratorium on that activity.
The AEC was not pleased. Seaborg recounts some of the heated conversations among the Commissioners in his book "The Atomic Energy Commission under Nixon: Adjusting to Troubled Times" (1993). By 1973, Livermore de-funded Gofman's laboratory research on chromosomes and Cancer. He returned to teaching full-time at U.C. Berkeley, until choosing an early and active "retirement" in order to concentrate fully on pro-bono research into human health-effects from radiation.
His 1981, 1985, 1990, 1994, and 1995/96 books present a series of findings. His 1990 book includes his proof, "by any reasonable standard of biomedical proof," that there is no threshold level (no harmless dose) of ionizing radiation with respect to radiation mutagenesis and carcinogenesis --- a conclusion supported in 1995 by a government-funded radiation committee. His 1995/96 book provides evidence that medical radiation is a necessary co-actor in about 75% of the recent and current Breast Cancer incidence (USA) --- a conclusion doubted but not at all refuted by several peer-reviewers.
John W. Gofman is the son of David and Sarah Gofman --- who immigrated to the USA from czarist Russia in about 1905. JWG was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in September 1918.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
