Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake

Born in Osnabrück, Germany on September 28, 1935, Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake's research has assessed the biological effects of ionizing radiation at low dosage levels. For some years she was a professor at the University of Bremen, covering the areas of radiation risk and the effect of low-level radiation exposure. She has always written up her scientific findings in comprehensible language, so that they can be understood by colleagues from related disciplines and interested laypeople. She became known in Germany for examining the rise of the number of children suffering leukemia in the surroundings of the Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant. In 1980 she examined dust in the attics of private houses in Elbmarsch and found an amount of plutonium that was not explainable by the Chernobyl disaster nor by nuclear weapons testing in the 1960s. According to herself she could proof that the found plutonium and nuclear fission products had their origin in the nuclear reactor of Krümmel.

In 2003 Schmitz-Feuerhake received the Nuclear-Free Future Award. In the same year she was elected chairman of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, a group of scientists opposing nuclear power.

Selected publications

• Richardson DB, Wing S, Schroeder J, Schmitz-Feuerhake I, Hoffmann W. Ionizing radiation and chronic lymphocytic leukemia Environ Health Perspect., 2005 Jan;113(1):1-5.

• Schmitz-Feuerhake, I., Mietelski, J.W., Gaca, P. Transuranic isotopes and 90Sr in attic dust in the vicinity of two nuclear establishments in northern Germany Health Physics, 84, 2003, 599-607.
• Kuni, H., Schmitz-Feuerhake, I., Dieckmann, H. Mammography screening--neglected aspects of radiation risks Gesundheitswesen, 65, 2003, 443-446.

• Schmitz-Feuerhake, I., von Boetticher, H., Dannheim, B., Gotz, K., Heimers, A., Hoffmann, W., Schröder, H. Estimation of x ray overexposure in a childhood leukaemia cluster by means of chromosome aberration analysis Radiat. Prot. Dosimetry, 98(3), 2002, 291-297.

• Bruske-Hohlfeld, I., Scherb, H., Bauchinger, M., Schmid, E., Fender, H., Wolf, G., Obe, G., Schmitz-Feuerhake, I., Schröder, H., Stephan, G., Csicsaky, M., Wichmann, H.E. A cluster of childhood leukaemias near two neighbouring nuclear installations in Northern Germany: prevalence of chromosomal aberrations in peripheral blood lymphocytes Int. J. Radiat. Biol., 77(1), 2001, 111-116.

See also

• Anti-nuclear movement in Germany

External links

• List of her publications since 1995