Cancer Incidence of Finnish Sami in the Light of Exposure to Radioactive Fallout

Abstract

This article summarizes the results of studies on the exposure of the Finnish Sami people to radioactive fallout and the estimations of the related cancer risk. We also discuss the lifestyle, genetic origin and diet of this population. The Sami people are an indigenous people who live in the northern part of Scandinavia and Finland. The review is based on the available scientific literature of Finnish Sami. The traditional Sami diet, high in animal products, persists in Sami groups still involved in reindeer-herding, but others have adopted the typical diet of western cultures. Studies have consistently shown an overall reduced cancer risk among the Finnish Sami people, except for stomach cancer among the Skolt Sami. Common cancers among the Finnish main population, such as prostate, breast and skin cancer are especially rare among the Finnish Sami. The incidence of cancer among the Finnish Sami are mostly similar to those of the Swedish and Norwegian Sami. To conclude, we observed no effect of radioactive pollution on cancer incidence. The lifestyles and environments of the Sami are changing, and their cancer mortality rate today is similar to that of the majority of the Finnish and western population.

Outdoor radon-222 in Arctic Finland

“…[34][35][36][37] However, this is not reected in cancer incidence rates. 38 External radiation outdoors and indoors, together about 600 mSv a −1 , is mainly due to cosmic radiation and gamma radiation from the ground. Outdoor 222 Rn, including its short-lived progeny, causes an order of magnitude lower dose contribution, about 50 mSv a −1 .…”

Transfer of Natural Radionuclides in Terrestrial Food Chains—A Review of Investigations in Finland

“…Next, some differences between the two regions (Lapland and southern Finland) with different diets in the past, in the concentrations of 210 Pb and 210 Po in human organs, are discussed. A related review about possible increased cancer risk among Sami people due to anthropogenic radionuclides from nuclear weapons tests, diet, and life habits has been recently published by Soininen and Mussalo-Rauhamaa [25].…”

Nuclear memory: Archival, aesthetic, speculative

“…Positioning nuclear memory as a research orientation rather than a new concept, we develop the idea that geographers can contribute much to analysing these changing nuclear waste futures – especially through conceptual research into new materialist and non-human agencies, future thinking, landscape and heritage studies, and speculative geographies that provide different ways of imagining and valuing ‘nature’ besides the anthropocentric logics (cf. Braun 2006; Debaise 2022; Soper 2009).…”