We Really Are Fucking Idiots
By Carl
Really? It's come down to this?
Americans are rushing to grab medicine against a threat that, if it even exists, is so miniscule as to be laughable?
Think about it: Chernobyl occured some 25 years ago and spread radiation as far south as Spain. No noticeable uptick in radiation disease was ever reported. Cancer rates remained reasonably stable.
That radiation cloud was immediately over densely populated areas.
Any Japanese radiation cloud that gets released would have to cross an entire ocean. An entire storm-laden, wind-driven, rainy-season ocean.
Yes, radiation would likely hit the States, certainly the far West like Alaska and Hawaii but in a nation where motorcycle helmet laws are debated, where guns are dispensed almost as easily as candy, where the First Lady is regularly raked over the coals for having the temerity to suggest that heart attacks in teenagers are a dangerous epidemic in the making, we're panicked over a few rems of radiation?
(crossposted to Simply Left Behind)
posted by Carl at
9:09 AM
3 Comments:
Think about it: Chernobyl occured some 25 years ago and spread radiation as far south as Spain. No noticeable uptick in radiation disease was ever reported."
My wife was born in Scandinavia just in time to catch some of the Chernobyl fallout. We're talking very low exposure... "don't drink the milk" levels of worry, not tape-the-windows-shut panic.
And yet, she and her sister (now in their 20s) have chronic health issues including diabetes, Crohn's disease, thyroid dysfunction, and SLE (lupus).
My wife will be fortunate to live past 50, and it's going to be a tough road getting there. She and her sister are not isolated stories; it's a common theme among post-Chernobyl europeans.
So yes, not a lot was REPORTED, and cancer's not exactly an epidemic. But I guarantee you the [relatively light] impact of Chernobyl on people thousands of miles away is very real, and very tragic.
Yes, buying iodide tablets is stupid and only makes greedy hucksters rich. I do not plan to run and panic if/when fallout from Japan finds America... but please, don't underestimate the long-term effects of even low doses of radiation. I live with its results every day.
By
Ralf, at 12:15 PM
Sorry to hear this, but anecdotes are not a scientific measure. These diseases happen all over and are common all over and family genetics cannot be discounted.
I'm old enough to remember the dire predictions about descendants of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and experience shows fears were far greater than actual conditions. As you might suspect, large sample studies have been going on since the 1940's without showing increased mortality or any concentration of disease.
There is certainly not enough evidence to pin any case on low dose radiation and that at Hiroshima was significant, to say the least.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 10:49 AM
and exactly how many generations does it take to correctly establish a difference in the populations genetics? do the soviet union have data from before chernobyl with which to compare it to?
would you say 25 years is a good enough measure?
do you personally know anything about the daughter products of nuclear fission? do you personally know anything about how a nuclear reactor works?
i think not.
are you in any way qualified to make the sweeping generalisations based on little to no amount of data, on an issue that requires both medical and scientific expertise?
i'll answer for you and that is a giant NO. so maybe you should think twice about voicing your opinion where it can be heard by others.
By
Anonymous, at 2:42 PM
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