Radioactivity's danger overstated?

shortnews ^ | 11/24/2007 | short news

[Flavius]

A number of studies conducted at the sites of some of the worst radiation incidents in history have concluded that the danger from radiation isn't as great as was previously believed.

Deaths from radiation incidents including the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in WW2 and Russian nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl were in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. The risk of genetic deformity was also lower than expected.

[BipolarBob]

Uranium- it ain’t just for breakfast anymore.

[bannie]

Go eat your bowl of lead, and we’ll discuss this later.

[cripplecreek]

Bout time, now where can I order me some of them radium suppositories?

[ClearCase_guy]

I did here somewhere that the rate of certain cancers among survivors of Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki was remarkably low. I think the belief was that the dose of radiation which had been received had acted as a preventative chemotherapy treatment.

I have no idea if there's any validity to that, and no, I wouldn't want to sign up for the treatment.

[familyop]

Radioactivity is good. It’s a treatment against cancer.

[patton]

apropos...

[The_Media_never_lie]

Title for new terrorist movie, a la Strangelove:

"Uranium - the Other Yellow Metal", or

"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mahmoud and his WMDs".

[cripplecreek]

[The_Media_never_lie]

How 'bout:

"The Radiation That Doesn't Kill Us Only Makes Us Stronger."

[rellimpank]

—IIRC, Dr. Edward Teller put it in perspective when he stated that he got more radioactive exposure flying to visit Three Mile Island than anyone did from the released radioactive material-—

[the invisib1e hand]

there goes polonium-210’s future.

[cripplecreek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554AX4l1tmw

[umgud]

Radioactivity's danger overstated?

Unless you're a smoker, or eat too many cheeseburgers or drive an SUV or ..........

[macamadamia]

[sinanju]

There’s been a lot written about how low-dose radiation exposure can be good for you. It turns out those healing springs known since antiquity were good because of the background radiation in the rocks, not the waters.

[Flavius]

we are the children of the sun

[GOPJ]

apropos...

Yes, why drop the information? In reference to what? Is this a subtle way to ask us not to panic?

[GOPJ]

Radioactivity is good. It’s a treatment against cancer.

Yeah, it works by killing living cells. It's "good" when targeted at a group of cancer cells - not so good when targeted at healthy cells or people for that matter.

[patton]

50mm remarked a few days ago, he was hesitant to handle DU rounds, for fear of rad count.

I pointed out on that thread, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still both going concerns, in spite of having been nuked into the stone age.

My point was, perhaps some fears are exagerated.