"There is no safe dose of radiation-We do not x-ray pregnant women-Any detectable fallout can kill"

[kpete]

HARVEY WASSERMAN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

...............................

With erratic radiation spikes, major air and water emissions and at least three reactors and waste pools in serious danger at Fukushima, we must prepare for the worst.

When you hear the terms "safe" and "insignificant" in reference to radioactive fallout, ask yourself: "Safe for whom?" "Insignificant to which of us?"

Despite the corporate media, what has and will continue to come here from Fukushima is deadly to Americans. At very least it threatens countless embryos and fetuses in utero, the infants, the elderly, the unborn who will come to future mothers now being exposed. (http://nukefree.org/arnie-gundersen-radiation-dangers )

No matter how small the dose, the human egg in waiting, or embryo or fetus in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder, has no defense against even the tiniest radioactive assault.
Science has never found such a "safe" threshold, and never will.
................

more:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12534

[NutmegYankee]

1. This is true. There is never a "safe" dose. It is about risk.

The risk from these low doses is very very small. But there is always a risk. Take Radon - Many homes in CT have high radon which is often mitigated with a relatively inexpensive system installed in the basement. This lowers the radon below the federal threshold, but there is always a risk from even the slightest dose over a lifetime of developing lung cancer. But mitigation lowers that risk to 1-2 per 1000 over a lifetime.

[robcon]

2. I think that anti-scientific nonsense.

"No matter how small the dose, the human egg in waiting, or embryo or fetus in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder, has no defense against even the tiniest radioactive assault."

We get radiation every day from the sun. Humans are built to resist small radiation doses. The idea that "There is no safe dose of radiation" is untrue.

[NutmegYankee]

4. The "safe" comment is true. The egg part is not.

There is no "safe" exposure as it can never be proven that you will not develop cancer later from exposure. That said, the risk is very small and most people will not develop cancer. Even then, it often cannot be proven what caused the cancer. Was it potassium 40 from a banana?

As for the egg, gamma rays are the form that can penetrate the body to impact eggs or a fetus. The radiation from Japan is not of this form and serves more of a risk due to inhalation or ingestion. Even then, the body heals cell damage every minute of every day.

[Junkdrawer]

7. The National Academies of Science seventh Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation report...

Is the current scientific standard consensus for legal purposes.

Among the reports conclusions are:

There is no safe level or threshold of ionizing radiation exposure.

Even exposure to background radiation causes some cancers. Additional exposures cause additional risks.

Radiation causes other health effects such as heart disease and stroke, and further study is needed to predict the doses that result in these non-cancer health effects.

It is possible that children born to parents that have been exposed to radiation could be affected by those exposures.

The "bystander effect" is an additional, newly recognized method by which radiation injures cells that were not directly hit but are in the vicinity of those that were. "Genomic instability" can be caused by exposure to low doses of radiation and according to the report "might contribute significantly to radiation cancer risk." These new mechanisms for radiation damage were not included in the risk estimates reported by the BEIR VII report, but were recommended for further study.

The Linear-No-Threshold model (LNT) for predicting health effects from radiation (dose-response) is retained, meaning that every exposure causes some risk and that risks are generally proportional to dose. The Dose and Dose-Rate Effectiveness Factor or DDREF which had been suggested in the 1990 BEIR V report to be applied at low doses, has been reduced from 2 to 1.5. That means the projected number of health effects at low doses are greater than previously thought.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x713927

[PoliticAverse]

3. Should pregnant women eat bananas ? n/t

[cali]

5. It is never safe to walk down a flight of stairs, take an escalator, eat a

single bite of food, etc, etc.

[Shiver]

18. Better stop breathing too.

Never known when you'll take in a lungful of some airborne contagion. Better to play it safe.

[Little Star]

6. A little radiation here, a little radiation there, can soon add up to...

a bad thing! I believe there is no "safe" threshold because every dose of that shit adds up. Why take any chances?

[hayu_lol]

8. Risk is the name of the game we play...

despite all the wars, the radiation, the traffic, drugs that we shouldn't be taking, bad food, electrical generation of whatever type and all the rest of modern day woes, we have achieved something like a world population of over 7 billion people who are living longer than our species has ever lived before.

The sky must really be falling.

Wonder if our pioneer forefathers worried about any of the stuff we find to worry about today?

[RegieRocker]

11. Geez how could they? They did worry about many other things just

as intensely and with the same anxiousness.

[Little Star]

13. I agree that risk is the name of the game we play............

Life is a game full of risks. I however, will try to minimize the risk to myself, when I choose, when it comes to things that I have some control over.

I like to try and keep informed about risks so that I can make choices. I am thankful to those who speak up about risks and don't think they are alarmists or that they're saying the sky is falling.

Our pioneer forefathers worried about plenty of stuff, it may not have been the same stuff we worry about today, but worry they certainly did.

[Ilsa]

9. My rule of thumb is to avoid radiation when practical and possible.

Sometimes you can't. But I don't want to volunteer to walk through backscatter radiation scanners or volunteer to get an xray when I'm feeling healthy. I don't much care for an annual mammogram, to be honest.

[Baclava]

10. If you're worried about radiation - better tear out those granite countertops

What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?

SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source.

“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.

“My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the weekend,” Dr. Sugarman said. When the technician told her to keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be safe, she said, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”

“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html

[RegieRocker]

12. Big difference between a sip of white lighting and drinking a gallon

and dying from alcohol poisoning. Big difference between 10x and 100x. What about 100,000x?

[Baclava]

17. That's true. But I'm pretty sure my radiation exposure isn't 100,000x times of anything

I'm not going to Japan.

[RegieRocker]

19. You don't have top go to japan it will come to a neighborhood

near you.

[Baclava]

21. I'd get more radiation lying on the beach, than from Japan

What? Me worry?

[Celebration]

14. best to check the granite before installing

Some granite is a problem, but most isn't..........

[MineralMan]

15. There is no safe automobile. Any automobile can kill.

Yes, radiation is unsafe. We've been living with radiation as long as humans have existed. It's the force that drives the mutations that cause evolution. Since 1945, we've been adding to the radiation we experience every day. Some of that radiation has caused cancers in humans. More of it is not good, but life is a death sentence in all cases.

There is no escaping radiation exposure on this planet. That is a fact of living here.

That said, nuclear power generation is not safe. It has never been safe, and cannot be made to be safe.

[Baclava]

22. If mutations drive evolution, then we MUST be evolving - we've been sprayed for decades

I lived through all the mega-ton nuclear weapons testing. I ain't ascared of a few stray particles from Japan.

[MineralMan]

23. Everything's evolving all the time. And yes, nuclear weapons

testing added a large radioactive component to our environment. Yet, our longevity keeps increasing, largely due to advances in medical treatments. Radiation is just another hazard we've added to the biosphere. So far, its effects have not been sufficient to keep human population from growing in leaps and bounds. I doubt the Fukushima incident will change that.

While all added radiation is a negative thing, there is no reason for us to panic about this particular incident. For those living near the Fukushima reactors, it's a bad deal, but far more died from the tsunami than will die from the increase in environmental radioactivity. Here in the USA, the effects will not even be noticed in our longevity or mortality rates. Not even noticed. Panic is an inappropriate reaction.

[closeupready]

24. I agree with you here entirely. And also,

I appreciate your ability to assess the circumstances calmly and rationally.

[pstokely]

16. Where is the anti-choice crowd now?

?

[RegieRocker]

20. They are here trust me.