[ RadSafe ] German radiophobia

[John Jacobus]

Rainer,
Thanks for the posting.  

What I was asking is do you know personally know of
anyone who has a fear of chronic low level ionizing
radiation.  That is, a friend, family member, or
coworker.  

I believe that we associate with people who are like
ourselves.  If you read, have a college education, and
a good job, you will associate yourself with like
individuals. I really do not know of anyone who truly
fears radiation, but I read about them all the time. 
I wonder where they all are?  In Germany? 

I assume that the article you quote from is not from a
publication that you normally read.  Of course we have
similar publications in the United States.  We are
just more taken with celebrities

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/mikewalker/63427

--- Rainer.Facius at dlr.de wrote:

> Some time ago John Jacobus asked me in the context
> of Chernobyl's Reduced Impact:
> 
> "Do you know of anyone who has a fear of chronic low
> level ionizing radiation exposure?"
> 
> Here is the n+1. example of (German) lunatic
> radiophobia - or is it radiophobic lunacy? - again
> in the context of Chernobyl:
>
(http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,378997,00.html)
> 
> "Flüchtlinge in Weißrussland: Asyl im verstrahlten
> Niemandsland"
> ("Refugees in Belorussia: Asylum in the
> 'verstrahlten' No-man's-land")
> 
> As I stated previously, I know of no way to convey
> the meaning of this word "verstrahlt" as a German
> layman will absorb it. "Overexposed to radiation"
> would be a phrase which approaches its technical
> content to some extent. The German layman will more
> likely assimilate this title as: Asylum in
> Radiation-Death-Valley.
> 
> The story:
> The Belorussian dictator Lukashenko plans to get rid
> of unwanted refugees from Afghanistan by deporting
> them to the Gomel district, a region which counts
> among the areas most heavily contaminated by the
> Chernobyl accident. Of cause, these poor people are
> doomed.
> 
> The facts:
> While it is true that the Gomel district belongs to
> the three most heavily contaminated areas, the
> remainder of the truth is that by the year 2000 the
> total (external+internal) annual radiation exposure
> of people living in the Gomel-Bryansk area was well
> below 1 to 2 mSv, a fraction of the natural exposure
> of people living in the Massif Central or in
> Cornwall.
> 
> Hille R, Hill P, Heineman K, Ramzaev V, Barkovski A,
> Konoplia V, Neth R, Current development of the human
> and environmental contamination in the Bryansk-Gomel
> spot after the Chernobyl accident. Radiation and
> Environmental Biophysics 39(2000)99-109
> 
> Yet, who cares about facts. Phobia (Angst) sells!
> 
> Rainer


+++++++++++++++++++
On Oct. 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe. 

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


		
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