Saturday, March 26, 2011

RADIATION WARNING ISSUED

Yesterday's K-W Record (Pg. B6) has the followiung story "Expert issues radiation warning". The expert is Dr. Helen Caldicott and her message is bleak: "No radiation is safe" as well as "Increasing background radiation is going to increase cancer". She also commented on the fact that males tend to store plutonium, courtesy of weapons testing days, in their anatomy. Also in this article was the fact that a community group which is pro nuclear energy has received funding to appear at the hearings. One member seemed to agree with Ontario Power Generation that Ontario reactors are superior to those in Japan, Russia and the United Staes. Personally, I'd really like to see some proof of that.
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2 comments:

  1. KatieMarch 27, 2011 at 9:41 PM

    Ok, a few things to think about critically here. First, Dr. Caldicott, while a MD, is not an expert in nuclear safety, radiation, physics, or physiology (her CV, posted on her website, indicates that all her training is in pediatrics). Second, she has a horse in this race--she has several books to sell, and appears to make her money running around and giving talks on the matter.

    Finally, radiation is already everywhere, naturally. Check out the Banana Equivalent Dose (BED): http://madartlab.com/2011/03/19/yellow-alert/

    Or, perhaps this more detailed chart: http://xkcd.com/radiation/

    Not that I totally support nuclear, but I think it is worthwhile to see everyone's biases and make sure we have clear information. Again, it's like you posted before--9,000 deaths a year in Ontario due to coal is an awful lot of death to weigh in the balance of our choice of energy production.

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  2. AlanMarch 28, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    Katie: Thank you for your broader perspective. Absolutely it is necessary to critically examine motives, potential biases and MONEY. Money especially can be a great incentive to bend one's opinions on environmental matters.

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