[ RadSafe ] Risk and Shady Business

[Cary Renquist]

Gov't Slow To Push For Safer Window Blinds 
http://j.mp/btIWvV

Saw this article right after seeing another "tritium scare" headline...

Brought to mind Sandy's comments on the general public's perception of
risk.

   Blinds and shades are some of the deadliest products subject to
recalls announced by the safety 
   agency in the last 15 years. Yet the government has failed to require
manufacturers to design 
   safer blinds and shades, relying instead on the industry to develop
its own standards.

   The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates about 500 children
have strangled on the cords 
   of blinds and shades since the early 1980s, an average of about one
child each month.


If I remember the quick calc (NRC factors) I did back in Feb, I think
that a person would need to 
drink 800 liters of water (2.2 liters/day) from the highest Vermont
Yankee well in order to get a 
100 mrem (1 mSv) dose -- which *might* theoretically increase one's
lifetime risk of dying from cancer 
by ~0.004%.  (Using the EPA's factors, 800 liters would be ~400 mrem (4
mSv))

With the blinds, there is a direct link to the death of 1 child per
month (on average) -- I'm sure that 
statistic is insignificant compared to child deaths in
automobile-accidents/slips-n-falls/etc., but it is 
a statistic that could be significantly reduced with some simple
engineering changes.

Guess which one gets all the protesters and news coverage?

Cary
--
Cary.renquist at ezag.com