[ RadSafe ] Concerns Could Reduce Radiation Sensor Deployment

[BLHamrick at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/5/2008 6:23:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
cjb01 at health.state.ny.us writes:

Any  competent- and honest HP- could have foretold this.  There is  no
technological solution to nuclear terrorism.
As long as there are  vendors and careerists willing to tell lawmakers and
political apparatchiks  what they want to hear,
the warnings of those of us who know better will  continue to be drowned
out.

Shame on all those who made a buck from  this boondoggle!


 
Clayton,
 
Actually, a lot of competent HPs did tell them this, but they were  
determined not to listen.  We are living Orwell's "1984," with the endless  shifting 
"war on terror," and the use of fear to control, but it's like no one  ever read 
the book.
 
And, to avoid sounding partisan about this, democrats are no better than  the 
republican fearmongers.  In California (controlled by a democratic  
legislature) this session they passed a bill to do biomonitoring (or some such  
nonsense) for carcinogens, at a cost of God knows what (because their fiscal  
assessments are generally worthless).  HELLO!  The five most  significant cancer 
promoters/indicators are 1) smoking, 2) drinking, 3) diet, 4)  lack of exercise, 
and 5) genetics.  The contribution of environmental  insults is nothing in the 
big scheme of things.  OTOH, I don't want them to  get anymore crazy ideas 
about controlling our personal lives.  I would  prefer if I could just continue 
to smoke, drink, eat some potato chips, and lay  on my couch, without the 
government interfering (I can't do anything about my  bad genes).  And, we're all 
going to die of something one day.  So,  let's just accept that, and move on.
 
Seriously.  Could we stop with the hysteria about death?  Yes,  I'm afraid of 
being in a plane commandeered by terrorists, and yes, I'm afraid  of dying a 
slow painful death from cancer.  I just think that, in the end,  since we're 
all going to die anyway, it might be better to spend our capital  frugally on 
improving the quality of all our lives, rather than spending it  recklessly to 
try to extend the quantity, which will in the end be finite no  matter what we 
do.  But, politically, saying you're against death, in  whatever form, is a 
winning ticket. 
 
This is the problem we have with radiation.  In the public's  mind:  
Radiation = Death.  What they don't get is that: Chocolate =  Death, Beer = Death, 
Grandma's faulty genes = Death, Laying around watching TV  all day = Death, and, 
in the end, even exercising and eating right = Death,  because we all die.
 
Just my two cents.
 
Barbara L. Hamrick, Esq., CHP
 
 





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