[ RadSafe ] Psychological Impacts of Chernobyl

[Steven Dapra]

April 28

         Chris Busby talks nonsense and is 
reluctant to substantiate any of his claims.  He 
is a chemist, not a health physicist.  He 
considers himself to be more of an authority on 
radioactivity than is the ICRP.  He finally gave 
a few citations, some of them to Nature.  Then, 
in another e-mail he called Nature a "rag."

         He complained loud and long that no one 
would address his claims about infant leukemias 
in the aftermath of Chernobyl.  When I posted a 
message here directly addressing his claims about 
said leukemias he dropped out of sight.  Does 
that sound like a "debate", much less an "honest debate"?

         In my estimation, calling Nature a 
"rag," or claiming the Fukushima accident will 
lead to hundreds of thousands of additional 
cancers, does not exactly constitute "divergent points of view."

         The "fact of the matter is" that most of 
the world does not care about the benefits or 
risks of the peaceful use of radioactive 
materials.  One can't even lead this horse to 
water, let alone make him drink.

         Busby and his fellow travelers are not 
filling any void of inadequate education.  What 
they are doing is spewing more hogwash into an already vast ocean of hogwash.

         And, yes, next time I'll really let you know what I think.

Steven Dapra


At 01:00 PM 4/28/2011, you wrote:
>Franz,
>
>You ask why Chris Busby still gets space on radsafe. Radsafe would be much
>less interesting without the debate that comes from divergent points of
>view. The fact of the matter is, our industry has not done a good enough job
>of educating the world on the benefits and true risks related to the
>peaceful use of radioactive materials. People like Mr. Busby have rushed in
>to fill that void. We all win with honest debate.
>
>Rich Gallego
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
>[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
>Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 11:39 AM
>To: 'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList';
>radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
>Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Psychological Impacts of Chernobyl
>
>Leo and RADSAFErs,
>
>I do not have access to the literature you gave, but I heavily doubt your
>statement, that "the number of excess induced abortions in Europe due to
>this fear has been estimated in the tens of thousands, and even higher".
>
>Some people, one of the most noisy is Chris Busby, have claimed very high
>numbers of abortions.

[edit]