AW: [ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's Reduced Impact

Fri Sep 9 14:37:30 CDT 2005

Rainer,
I think the causes of mental illness, alcoholism,
depression, etc. is due primarily to the people being
displaced from there home, loss of income, and being
lied to by their government.  

In this country, large numbers of people were
evacuated, separated from family and friends, and sent
to places have never been before.  The difference, I
hope, is that the citizens of our country will get
medical, housing and living assistance.  Large numbers
of mental health professions have already been
dispacted.  Otherwise we could have a new outbreak of
hurricainephobia.

Radiophobia is a nice term.  However, you see these
same symptoms when natural or man-made disaster occur,
and people are displaced.  Blaming every preceived
problem on the use of the LNT hypothesisis the same as
anti-nuclear people blaming radiation for every
cancer.  

Simplisticc, but not very scientific.

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

> One more source:
> 
>  
> 
>
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=4370135
> 
>  
> 
> <quote>Perhaps the true tragedy of Chernobyl is that
> the biggest observable health impact so far has been
> on the mental health of the millions who have been
> told they are at risk. Many of these people received
> radiation doses no larger than they would get on a
> holiday in a place such as Denver, where the
> altitude increases exposure to cosmic rays, yet they
> have spent their lives anticipating illness and
> incapacity, and this has translated into such
> undesirable behaviours as drug abuse and long-term
> dependency on the state.<end quote> 
> 
>  
> 
> To my knowledge it was Klaus Becker who most aptly
> coined the word RADIOPHOBIA for the mental condition
> whose symptoms and consequences are described in
> this article as in many others these days. Becker
> used it at a time when the full implications were
> only perceived by those who had not yet lost the
> ability to discriminate between data and postulates.
> These reports should finally immunise us against the
> contention that - while potentially being wrong - it
> might nevertheless be prudent to act according to
> the LNT postulate (including the ensuing ALARA
> incantation) since it does no harm. Unless we
> succeed in eradicating this mental bug it will
> continue to exact its sacrifices - among individuals
> as well as in the society as a whole.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards, Rainer
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl im Auftrag von
> Stabin, Michael
> Gesendet: Do 08.09.2005 13:13
> An: RADSAFE
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's Reduced Impact
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The last paragraph is interesting, especially
> considering the source.
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------
> Chernobyl's Reduced Impact
> NY Times Editorial: September 8, 2005
> 
> An authoritative scientific report commissioned by
> the United Nations
> has found that the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl
> nuclear power plant in
> rural Ukraine - the worst nuclear accident in
> history - caused far less
> health and environmental damage than originally
> feared. The findings
> offer clues for coping with a major release of
> radiation from a nuclear
> plant, whether caused by terrorists or by an
> accident.
> 
> No sooner had the report been issued this week than
> it was attacked by
> several environmental groups as a biased attempt to
> whitewash the
> potential dangers of nuclear power. But the report
> reflects the
> consensus of eight United Nations agencies,
> including those responsible
> for health, the environment and nuclear power, and
> the governments of
> Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
> 
> The explosion at one of Chernobyl's reactors sent
> chunks of the core
> into surrounding fields and spewed clouds of
> radioactive particles into
> the air for days afterward, contaminating large
> swaths of land downwind.
> There were dire predictions that tens of thousands,
> possibly even
> hundreds of thousands, of people might die from
> radiation-related
> illnesses. So far 56 deaths have been directly
> attributed to the
> accident, 47 among emergency workers and 9 among
> young children who
> developed thyroid cancer after drinking contaminated
> milk.
> 
> In the long run, the experts predict, some 4,000
> emergency workers and
> residents of the most contaminated areas may die
> from radiation-induced
> cancer. That qualifies Chernobyl as a very serious
> accident but not a
> catastrophe.
> 
> The greatest harm was inflicted on emergency
> workers; some succumbed
> quickly to acute radiation sickness and show a
> slight rise in leukemia.
> This suggests that proper equipment for such workers
> can greatly
> mitigate the health damage after an accident. In the
> wider region, the
> most concrete damage has been thyroid cancer, which
> has afflicted some
> 4,000 children. Some 99 percent were treated
> successfully, and 9 died.
> Efforts in areas around nuclear plants to stockpile
> pills that block
> thyroid cancer appear well advised.
> 
> Most emergency workers and residents of contaminated
> areas received
> relatively low radiation doses, comparable to
> natural background
> exposures in some areas of the world. So there have
> been no decreases in
> fertility and no increases in birth defects.
> 
> Instead, the greatest public health hazard has been
> mental. People from
> the region are anxious and fatalistic, based on a
> greatly exaggerated
> view of the risks they face. The result can be drug
> and alcohol abuse,
> unemployment, and an inability to function. Disaster
> coordinators will
> clearly have to factor mental health effects into
> their planning.
> 
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> Mike
> 
> Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
> Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological
> Sciences
> Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
> Vanderbilt University
> 1161 21st Avenue South
> Nashville, TN 37232-2675
> Phone (615) 343-0068
> Fax   (615) 322-3764
> Pager (615) 835-5153
> e-mail     michael.g.stabin at vanderbilt.edu
> internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com
> 
> 
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+++++++++++++++++++
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea and never shrinks back to its original proportion." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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

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