Our book deals with many complex and controversial issues. Some lack a clear answer. We sought information, comments, and critiques from expert colleagues. All gave sound advice, much of which we accepted. For friendly suggestions, guidance, and forbearance, we thank Leslie Botnick of Vantage Oncology; Neil Buist, M.D., FRCPE, Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Science University; Howard W. Dickson, CHP, President, Dickson Consulting, L.L.C.; Robert J. Emery, Ph.D., Professor of Occupational Health, The University of Texas School of Public Health; F. Owen Hoffman, President and Director SENES Oak Ridge, Inc. Center for Risk Analysis, Distinguished Emeritus Member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, and Consultant to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation; Waltraud Holzer, the former Executive Secretary at the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation in Vienna; Bennett Ramberg, Ph.D, author of Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril; Eric R. Scerri, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, author of The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance; Arnold Sherwood, Ph.D.; Masao Tomonaga, M.D.; F. Ward Whicker, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University; and Susan C. Winter, MD, FAAP, FFACMG, Medical Director, Medical Genetics/Metabolism, Children’s Hospital Central California, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of California/San Francisco. Their contributions improved this book greatly, and credit for what is correct is theirs. Any errors are ours alone.
Our thanks as well to Walter Isaacson; Diana K. Buchwald, General Editor and Director of the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech; Barbara Wolff of the Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Sarah L. Malcolm of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, for their assistance with permission to use the Albert Einstein letter to Franklin Roosevelt; and to Marc Bouquet, Ph.D., Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Environnement Atmosphérique (CEREA), Paris, France, for permission to use his lab’s illustrations on the dispersal of cesium-137 from Fukushima and Chernobyl.
At Knopf, our thanks to Jonathan Segal for his support for this book and for his always deft editing; to his assistant Joey McGarvey for her steady and cheerful help; to Victoria Pearson for her grace and humor in navigating the book through production on a schedule we made far too tight; to Amy Ryan for her diligent and thoughtful copy editing; to Janet Biehl for a multitude of last-minute heroics; and to Michelle Somers and Brittany Morrongiello for quick and inventive thinking.
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Many physicians and scientists collaborated with me over these years. It is impossible to name them all, but some deserve special mention. I apologize to anyone I missed; you know who you are. My colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, supported and contributed greatly to several emergency responses, including Professors Richard A. Champlin, now of the University of Texas, Paul I. Terasaki, Drew J. Winston, Winston G. Ho, Emmanuel Maidenberg, and the late Professors M. Ray Mickey and David W. Golde. Also, my mentor and friend Professor Martin J. Cline and the late Professor Alexander Friedenstein, who suffered greatly under the Soviet system. Professor Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science, a lifelong colleague and friend, who braved the Cold War to help the Chernobyl victims. The late Dr. Armand Hammer and Richard Jacobs helped me immensely with resources. Professor Alexander Baranov of the Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center (FMBC) has been my colleague, teacher, and friend for more than twenty-five years. He and I worked with Professor Angelina Guskova and Academicians Andrei Vorobiev and Lenoid Illyn of the FMBC and Russian Research Center for Hematology, the late Georgi Selidovkin of the FMBC, and many other talented Russian and Ukrainian physicians and scientists. Academician Yergeniy Chazov allowed me to raid his institute for equipment or supplies on several occasions, and Dr. Vicktor Voskresenskiy, my KGB “minder,” always helped me skirt the “system” when needed, despite his official role. President Mikhail Gorbachev, along with the late Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, were key in inviting me to the Soviet Union and encouraging my efforts. Foreign Minister Nikolai Ryzkov help with my efforts in Armenia after the earthquake in 1988. The late Professor E. Donnall Thomas of the University of Washington and his Seattle colleagues got me interested in bone marrow transplantation more than forty years ago. I was also helped early on by the late Professors Mortimer M. Bortin of the Medical College of Wisconsin, George W. Santos of Johns Hopkins University, and Georges Mathé of Institut Gustave Roussy.
In Brazil, I was privileged to work with Dr. Daniel Tabak, then of the National Cancer Institute, and with Admiral Amihai Burla of the Brazilian Navy who “liked” me so much he tried to prevent my exit by confiscating my passport on several occasions. My colleagues at the Naval Hospital Marcílio Dias in Rio and the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Agency were very important collaborators. Professor Roland Mertlesmann of Freiburg University also helped. Waltraud Holzer helped with contact to the International Atomic Agency for many years.
In Japan, I am indebted to Professors Kazuhiko Maekawa, Shigeru Chiba, and Shigetaka Asano of Tokyo University; Hakeumi Oh, Hideke Kodo, Hideo Mugishima of Nihon University; and Masao Tomonaga of Nagasaki University, who kindly shared his recollections of the atomic bombings and has dedicated his life to study the aftereffects. Professor Mine Harada of Kyushu University has been a lifelong colleague and friend and has always supported these complex projects. Ms. Noriko Shirasu helped with liaison to the Prime Minister’s office and Diet. Celgene Corporation supported my humanitarian efforts in Japan led by Mr. Joseph Melillo and Drs. Jerry Zeldis and Jay Backstrom.
Most of all, I am indebted to my family, who supported me through these adventures. Tal, Shir, and Elan took their father’s advice and braved Kiev soon after Chernobyl to help calm the population. My wife, Laura Jane, read many iterations of this book and kept Eric and me clothed and fed through endless sessions.
Lastly, may I recognize Andrei Tarmozian, a Chernobyl hero, who kept in touch for many years and who, despite his injuries, traveled around the world to discuss his experiences with fellow firefighters. He lived to see his grandchild and only recently died of causes unrelated to radiation. I shall miss him.
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Jon Segal has been my editor for more than thirty years, through six books. He improves every manuscript he touches with his care for the writer and his attention to each detail. It is a given in publishing that he is an extraordinary editor. To my good fortune, he is also an extraordinary friend.
My gratitude to Laura Gale for her comments on the manuscript, as well as for her care, feeding, and friendship, while Bob and I worked in Los Angeles, New York City, Big Sky, Montana, and London. My gratitude as well to Danielle Flam for a careful and thoughtful reading. Great thanks to E. C. McCarthy, a wonderful writer who helped arrange a vast amount of material and who often came up with just the right word.
David Wolf and William Tyrer suffer through many drafts of every book I write and never say no to the next. Their decades of friendship are a steady boon, their camaraderie a joy. My sons Simon and John each made contributions with their reading, questions, and suggestions. One night over dinner, Simon offered an insightful theory of why people fear radiation. I asked him to write it out, and it stands largely intact in these pages. My wife, Karen Sulzberger, is an equally thoughtful reader and questioner, a fount of encouragement and support, and best of all, a glorious partner in love and in life.
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