[ RadSafe ] "Do Not Read This If You Are Anti-Nuclear Energy"

[John Jacobus]

It is usually more complex than numbers and
statistics.  Consider how many people who are killed
by sharks.  Now ask the first 10 people you meet if
they are afraid of sharks.

We are all familiar with cars, electrical outlets,
turning on the gas stoves.  So why should we be afraid
of them?

These are not new issues.

--- Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com> wrote:

> Nov. 21
> 
>          Perhaps this is the journalists' way of
> showing us they don't know 
> enough elementary arithmetic to calculate
> proportions.  (Can anyone devise 
> a more plausible explanation?)
> 
> Steven Dapra
> 
> 
> At 06:14 PM 11/21/07 -0600, Bob Cherry wrote:
> >Subject opinion article in the New York Times
> quotes our Bernie Cohen who
> >researched stories by the New York Times about
> different types of accidents
> >between 1974-78 (prior to Three Mile Island):
> >
> >On an average, there were 120 entries per year on
> motor vehicle accidents,
> >which kill 50,000 Americans each year; 50 entries
> per year on industrial
> >accidents, which kill 12,000; and 20 entries per
> year on asphyxiation
> >accidents, which kill 4,500; note that for these
> the number of entries,
> >which represents roughly the amount of newspaper
> coverage, is approximately
> >proportional to the death toll they cause. But for
> accidents involving
> >radiation, there were something like 200 entries
> per year, in spite of there
> >not having been a single fatality from a radiation
> accident for over a
> >decade.
> >
> >Another problem, especially in TV coverage, was use
> of inflammatory
> >language. We often heard about "deadly radiation"
> or "lethal radioactivity,"
> >referring to a hazard that hadn't claimed a single
> victim for over a decade,
> >and had caused less than five deaths in American
> history. But we never heard
> >about "lethal electricity," although 1,200
> Americans were dying each year
> >from electrocution; or about "lethal natural gas,"
> which was killing 500
> >annually with asphyxiation accidents. (Bernard
> Cohen, "The Nuclear Energy
> >Option," pp. 58-59.)
> >
> >
> >
> >The opinion article:
>
>http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/do-not-read-this-if-you-are
> >-anti-nuclear-energy/
> 
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+++++++++++++++++++
"If you guard your toothbrushes and diamonds with equal zeal, you'll probably lose fewer toothbrushes and more diamonds."
- Former national security advised McGeorge Bundy
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


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