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Low dose ionising radiation IS harmful to health
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/life/health/low-dose-ionising-radiation-is-harmful-to-health/ ^ | May 20, 2012 | Noel Wauchope

Posted on 06/13/2012 10:58:45 AM PDT by ransomnote

A landmark study on Hiroshima survivors comprehensively disproves nuclear lobby spin about ionising radiation being safe at low doses. Noel Wauchope reports.

The nuclear industry has a long history of concealing the truth about low dose radiation

This week, a new report about low dose ionising radiation was published — one that should put a spanner in the works of the nuclear lobby. It is called ‘Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases’.

First of all, let me explain why this report is so important and so timely.

It’s now just over a year since the tragic Fukushima disaster. So the nuclear lobby thinks that it’s time to restart the nuclear renaissance, and to get people to stop worrying about ionising radiation.

To this end, the industry, and particularly the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have projects under way.

In particular, there are two important projects going on — seemingly unrelated ones. But they are, as a matter of fact, closely related. Both aim to dampen the public concern about ionising radiation — indeed, to promote acceptance of “low level radiation”:

One sets out to downgrade nuclear emergency procedures. The other aims at discrediting the scientifically accepted model on the cancer risk of low level radiation — known as the Linear No Threshold model (LNT), which states that there is no level below which ionising radiation is not harmful, with risk increasing with each added unit of radiation. Project 1 – weakening emergency safety standards.

The USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have, in recent times, quietly downgraded nuclear emergency procedures. In particular, the new rules almost entirely ignore the radiation hazard. You can read more about this here.

Among the changes to the original 1979 program for nuclear emergency action, they have eliminated the requirement that local responders always practise for a release of radiation. Also, there is a new requirement that some planning exercises incorporate a reassuring premise — that no harmful radiation is released. As this article comments:

‘ many state and local emergency officials say such exercises make no sense in a program designed to protect the population from radiation released by a nuclear accident …

‘… The Japanese disaster reinforced such worries when officials told some towns beyond 12 miles from the disabled plant to evacuate. The U.S. government recommended that Americans stay at least 50 miles from the plant. Soil and crops were contaminated for scores of miles around. At one point, health authorities in Tokyo, 140 miles away, advised families not to give children the local water, which was contaminated by fallout to twice the government limit for infants. ”

And the NRC and FEMA plan to review their procedures soon — in all likelihood, to continue their history of watering down safety standards, even to wholly ignore problems hen encountering violations at the nation’s aging reactors. (This is detailed by David Worthington in ‘US nuclear safety regulations softened by industry influence’.) Project 2 – discrediting the radiation risk model

The U.S. Department of energy funds research projects worldwide that promote the theories of “radiation hormesis” and “adaptive radiation”.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: agitprop; atomic; fud; hiroshima; nuclear; radiation; scaretactics
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To: pfflier
Never heard of it. Probably something new, and it may, just possibly, have nothing to do with The Independent Australian

from wiki

The Independent Australian is an Australian quarterly current affairs and politics magazine. Founded in 2003, the magazine describes itself as "politically incorrect" and "socially and culturally conservative." It deals with issues ranging from immigration and multiculturalism to environmental conservationism and sustainability.

21 posted on 06/13/2012 12:11:45 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (If Shellie really loved George, she would have taken his money and run away with it.)
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To: ransomnote
So....let’s just let incompetent nuclear industry management continue without comment?

Perhaps not. But there is a larger problem. Humankind needs power. But all that power that we get is in some way dirty. Nuclear is self-explanatory. Hydro kills huge lands and little fishes. Coal is radioactive and mining destroys lands, and all that smoke is not good for us either. Oil is getting harder to obtain. Solar is not energy-efficient, and semiconductor manufacturing is very poisonous. What do we have left?

There is an alternative, though. We can reduce our energy consumption. But if we do so then we have to reduce the population as well, since primitive farming (with animals for motive force) will not be able to feed 6+ billion people, especially when majority of them will have no jobs. We don't even have enough arable land for 6 billion newly minted peasants. Humans are alive and well today largely because modern intensive agriculture can feed us.

Without energy modern medicine will cease to be. We will be thrown back into middle ages where a horse was the best vehicle you could hope for. Plague and other maladies would become commonplace without proper sanitation (that requires energy.)

I don't want to say that TEPCO and their ilk should be allowed to do whatever they want, unchecked. However it's not enough to say "this won't work" - we need to have a plan, a list of things that will work. I haven't seen such a plan yet - a plan, at least, that does not decimate the population.

Besides, let's assume for the moment that we let 9/10 of the people to die off. The survivors go back into caves. But is such a life worth it? You probably will live longer near Fukushima than in a cave far away from it. The first cold winter, pneumonia, no antibiotics, and you are done for. A newborn's chance of survival would be also pretty low. But Gaia would be happy, I guess.

22 posted on 06/13/2012 12:15:22 PM PDT by Greysard
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To: ransomnote
I have studied radiation and the effects of Hiroshima. Which study are you referring to and where is it. Lets look at the original information and not at a hit piece of a study. I suspect the writer has no background in radiation. Radiation is a natural process like the sun. Deep in the earth is radioactive decay that warms the earth also not not the spread of radioactive waste.
23 posted on 06/13/2012 12:22:58 PM PDT by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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To: ransomnote

I haven’t read the study and really don’t intend to. These studies generally all use the Linear No Threshold model to extrapolate risk from very high doses of radiation (with very poor dosimetry) to low levels of radiation exposure. I think the LNT concept is dubious at best. I do think studies of medical exposure where there is some basis of the dosimetry and its link to cancer are worthwhile.


24 posted on 06/13/2012 12:26:28 PM PDT by wfu_deacons
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To: mountainlion

how are you supposed to avoid low doses of ionizing radiation? it’s naturally occuring. You can’t go outside, eat food, or heaven forbid you fly. I agree with mountainlion, sounds like no background in radiation. BTW which types of radiation are ionizing? :)


25 posted on 06/13/2012 12:32:47 PM PDT by class8601_nuke (don't just be critical, be prompt critical.)
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To: mountainlion
The report is fine. The problem comes with the “Review of the Report” by an outsider Ian Goddard. The man draws conclusions from nothing. This report is not about “low levels of radiation”, but the radiation effects on the survivors in these cities between 1950 and 2003. This is the 14th report. It really does not provide any thing new.
26 posted on 06/13/2012 12:39:22 PM PDT by WWTraveler
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To: ransomnote
Most scientific papers are probably wrong, by Kurt Kleiner, New Scientist, 30 August 2005

Especially ones with an agenda.

27 posted on 06/13/2012 12:46:01 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: WWTraveler
The people should examine a control group of non exposed persons to show the effects. Reports like this need to be studied by experts and not take bad looking parts out of context. I saw that 0% of the people 50 and had survived. That looks bad until you think that someone 50 years old would be 117 years old now.
28 posted on 06/13/2012 12:52:06 PM PDT by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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To: class8601_nuke
" BTW which types of radiation are ionizing?"
ummm....MR. SUN (SOL :)

29 posted on 06/13/2012 12:55:33 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (WA DC E$tabli$hment; DNC/RNC/Unionists...Brazilian saying: "$@me Old $hit; different flie$". :^)
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To: ransomnote

http://lowdose.energy.gov/pdf/DoseRanges.pdf


30 posted on 06/13/2012 1:29:32 PM PDT by Stymee (Father of 7)
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To: class8601_nuke
BTW which types of radiation are ionizing?

Ionizing (or ionising) radiation is radiation composed of particles that individually can liberate an electron from an atom or molecule, producing ion-pairs. [...] US Federal Communications Commission material defines ionizing radiation as that with a photon energy of greater than 10 eV (equivalent to a far ultraviolet wavelength of 124 nanometers). [link]

They even offer an example:

The exposure caused by Potassium-40 present within a normal person.

I guess there is a huge market out there for some process to remove Potassium-40 from everyone and everything that lives :-) After that is done, the next task would be to remove all the granite rocks from Earth, somehow. Ultimately, of course, since Earth is inherently radioactive, we have to get rid of the planet.

31 posted on 06/13/2012 1:56:37 PM PDT by Greysard
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To: ransomnote
I was very careful not to critique the article. I was researching the source since I never heard of them before, which wouldn't be uncommon here in the US.

I was associated with the Aussies while in the USAF and they were top notch people and remade my political definition of conservative. In the US I stand to the right of Reagan but in Australia, we would both be seen as left leaning pinkos. On the other hand, Australia is the country that gave us Wikileaks and Assange too.

32 posted on 06/13/2012 3:14:44 PM PDT by pfflier
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To: ransomnote

“A landmark study on Hiroshima survivors comprehensively disproves nuclear lobby spin about ionising radiation being safe at low doses. Noel Wauchope reports.”

I’ve only gotten through this first sentence...but when I read something like this, I immediately DISCREDIT the source.


33 posted on 06/13/2012 5:19:29 PM PDT by BobL
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To: mountainlion

You say: “I have studied radiation and the effects of Hiroshima. Which study are you referring to and where is it. Lets look at the original information and not at a hit piece of a study”

But your prior posts like #4 and #17 show a shocking lack of scientific knowledge and/or an intent to manipulate and distort. If you were an expert - you’d enhance the public’s understanding of radiation but I see you threw everything in there but bananas in an attempt to confuse and misinform. Not worth spending my time talking to an ignorant shill.


34 posted on 06/13/2012 10:33:09 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: freedommom

Thank you for the link, Freedommom. Gunderson has done excellent work - that is why the pro nuke shills hate him so much.
John Gofman, the ‘father of plutonium’, was a well respected physicist and medical physician right up until the day he told his superiors that radiation was harmful to human health and his studies proved it. I’ve seen quotes where the nuclear lobby portrays him as the most irrational incoherent person etc. and yet he has a nice long history of discovering radioactive elements, supplying Oppenheim with material on demand, pioneering the work in cholesterol (LDL/HDL) and ‘elegant’ experimental designs which proved the relationship between low dose radiation and breast cancer. When posting on a board with nuke shills, you are going to see Gunderson and Gofman ridiculed as crazies or tree-huggers - and the people doing the ranting will be nuke shills who have no credibility at all.


35 posted on 06/13/2012 10:38:40 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: BobL

BEIR VII report has a similar sentence in their report. It’s something like ‘contrary to what the nuclear industry would like to believe...’ and it’s there because the medical community seems to be frustrated by the way that the nuke industry has commandeered, or tried to, the reporting of medical consensus. Nuke shills HAVE to claim BEIR VII and all other medical reports are biased or lack credibility because it says things they don’t want to hear - it points to their liability to the public and if there’s anything nuke apologists will never accept, is accountability for their actions. So - yes you discredit medical reports you don’t like. I am not surprised.


36 posted on 06/13/2012 10:42:21 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: Greysard

“But there is a larger problem.”

The larger problem is that the public, and the will of the people, is being undermined by an industry subsidized and leveraged by their government. It’s a corrupting arrangement and the public is lied to, shouted down, and regulated out of participating in the proper governance and risks associated with resources.


37 posted on 06/13/2012 10:47:16 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

and nuke shills attacking peer reviewed medical research spanning about 50 years have NO agenda....


38 posted on 06/13/2012 11:24:39 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: ransomnote

“So - yes you discredit medical reports you don’t like. I am not surprised.”

You may be fine with biased reporting, when the bias is on your side. I’m not good with it, regardless of which side they favor.

As to your nuke hysteria - you might want to check on just what happened to all the people that were supposed to get cancer and die from the Chernobyl plumes. They never materialized. Sure, if you’re dropping concrete above a melted-down reactor, you were toast - but for the millions and millions of people downwind, nothing. Also, the place has turned into an animal refuge now, just due to lack of people. Some of those animals are very hot, but they thrive.

Of course I made up everything above (as you would see it), so just ignore the UNBIASED work and live in your paranoid world.


39 posted on 06/14/2012 4:55:28 AM PDT by BobL
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To: ransomnote
You need to be able to look at both sides of a story and make up your own mind. When you read the opinion piece you get the opinion or the writers’ agenda. I agree that people need to be better educated on radiation and nuclear power and not dismiss it on raw fear.
Liberals tend to lock on one idea and get angry when others do not agree with them. Name calling usually occurs when they lose the discussion. Just because radiation can be dangerous does not mean it should be feared.
40 posted on 06/14/2012 5:12:05 AM PDT by mountainlion (I am voting for Sarah after getting screwed again by the DC Thugs.)
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