[ RadSafe ] News Article: "Christopher Busby's wild claims hurt green movement and Green party" -The Guardian [England] Nov. 22, 2011

Tue Nov 22 17:29:05 CST 2011

Great stuff Stu.
Here is a link to the Guardian article that's easier:
http://tinyurl.com/88q8wc2 

Sincerely,

Neill Stanford, CHP
Stanford Dosimetry, LLC
360 733 7367
360 933 1794 (fax)
www.stanforddosimetry.com
stanford at stanforddosimetry.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Stewart Farber [mailto:SAFarber at optonline.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 1:44 PM
To: 'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List'
Subject: [ RadSafe ] News Article: "Christopher Busby's wild claims hurt
green movement and Green party" -The Guardian [England] Nov. 22, 2011

The Guardian [Manchester, England], a paper of world-wide high regard,
published the following article today by one of its respected staff
reporters and columnists following up on its article criticizing Dr. Busby
yesterday.  The column criticizing Dr. Christopher Busby today is titled:

"Christopher Busby's wild claims hurt green movement and Green party"
---The Green party adviser's theories on the Fukushima nuclear disaster and
a 'leukaemia cluster' in North Wales are baseless scaremongering - even the
anti-nuclear lobby must oppose him

See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2011/nov/22/christopher-
busby-nuclear-green-party

Of note, the Guardian has the second largest on-line readership of any
English newspaper in the world, just behind the New York Times. So a great
many people around the world will see the information presented at the link
above.

The Guardian article above reports questions asked of Busby by the paper
about his recent activities pushing the sale of very expensive detox mineral
pills, and now detox clays, and various other products [including iodine
solutions], and analytical services.

And truly, I saw the article above only after I wrote my post to Radsafe a
short time ago asking some similar questions. The Guardian reporter today
writes about Busby and his actions regarding Fukushima:

"An organisation based in Japan, calling itself the Christopher Busby
Foundation for the Children of Fukushima, and linked to Busby's own
enterprise in Wales called Busby Laboratories, solicits donations for its
work. But the bank account it asks people to send them to is not in Japan.
It is called Green Audit, and the bank is in Busby's home town of
Aberystwyth. Green Audit is an environmental consultancy and research
organisation founded by Busby."

"When I phoned Busby to ask him some questions about these issues, his
responses were less than enlightening. He began as follows: "You can f%%k
off frankly."

"When I asked him what his involvement was with the Christopher Busby
Foundation for the Children of Fukushima, he told me: "I think you can f++k
off. I'm not going to answer your questions." When I asked whether the
products being sold in his name are snakeoil, he responded: "Of course it's
not snakeoil you f++kwit".

It is interesting to read how Dr. Christopher Busby reacts when an impartial
journalist from a respected newspaper asks him some non-adulatory questions
about his actions. 

"Busby answered some of my questions but put the phone down on me before I
could ask what I considered to be the key points. These are:

- Are you receiving money from the sale of these products and services?

- Have the pills being sold in your name been subjected to a randomised
controlled trial to test their efficacy?

- Are the tests being sold audited by external assessors?

- Do you draw money out of the Green Audit account for your own use?"

Further, the Guardian Staff Reporter/Columnist wrote in the above article
published today at the posted link:

"We have a moral duty not to spread unnecessary and unfounded fears. If we
persuade people that they or their children are likely to suffer from
horrible and dangerous health problems, and if these fears are baseless, we
cause great distress and anxiety, needlessly damaging the quality of
people's lives."

"We have a moral duty not to use these unfounded fears as a means of
extracting money from frightened and vulnerable people, whatever that money
might be used for."

"We have a moral duty not to divert good, determined campaigners away from
fighting real threats, and into campaigns against imaginary threats.
Dedicated and effective activists are a scarce resource. Wasting their lives
by encouraging them to chase unicorns is a disservice to them and a
disservice to everyone else."

"We have a moral duty to assess threats as clearly and rationally as we can,
so that we do not lobby to replace a lesser threat with a greater one. If,
as is already happening in Germany, shutting down nuclear power results in
an increase in the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal, far more people
will suffer and die...." 

This reporter has really hit the nail on the head.

An no, I did not feed the Guardian reporter/columnist a single word. The
reporter, a Mr. George Monblot and I have never met or spoken. However,
perhaps the Guardian staff reporter Monblot writing about Dr. Busby, has
been "lurking" on Radsafe and reading our posts. We can only hope.  :-)

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
email: SAFarber at optonline.net
203-441-8433

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