[ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR press release on Fukushima

[Stewart Farber]

Tony,
Thanks for your very relevant post about the UN UNSCEAR press release and
summary statements.

Perhaps the UN's UNSCEAR should forward these press releases and reports to
"experts" in radiation risk assessment like Dr. Caldicott and Dr. Busby for
their review. Caldicott and Busby have predicted that millions of people,
both in Japan and world-wide,  would die from the Fukushima accident, so
perhaps they know something that the panel of 70 experts do not.

It would be informative to have experts like Caldicott and Busby comment on
the total radiation exposure delivered as part of medical diagnostic
procedures, which dwarfs that each year from nuclear power generation,
Fukushima, Chernobyl, TMI and every other accident connected with nuclear
energy since its use began.

It the statements on radiation risk by parties like Caldicott and Busby are
accurate, hundreds of millions to billions of excess cancers would have
resulted over the past 40 years as a consequence of the many hundreds of
millions of person-Sv delivered over the same period from medical diagnostic
radiology and background radiation exposure.

As a  bit of relevant history, Helen Caldicott was married as of 1988 for 26
years to Bill Caldicott, a radiologist, who joined her for many years in
antinuclear activism. Dr. Bill Caldicott left Helen in 1988 for a woman, 20
years her junior. [Ref.: Boston Globe, Dec. 5, 1989 titled: "Caldicott's
crusade changes course - Putting personal turmoil behind her, the
impassioned activist turns to ecological battles".

It is somewhat surprising that Helen Caldicott does not have a bit of animus
toward radiologists and medical uses of diagnostic radiology as a
consequence, and spend a smidgen of her time trying to reduce medical
radiation exposure -- which dwarfs radiation exposure from Fukushima by
factors of thousands.



Stewart Farber, MSPH
SAFarber at optonline.net

===============================

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Harrison, Tony
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:47 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: [ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR press release on Fukushima

Available here:
http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2012/unisous144.html

The Washington Post, at least, made a good headline out of it:
"UN agency says no Fukushima nuclear plant workers have died from radiation
since disaster"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/world-health-organization-s
ays-most-fukushima-radiation-doses-below-norms/2012/05/23/gJQA5PfPkU_story.h
tml?hpid=z10

You know what to do...

Tony Harrison, MSPH
Inorganic & Radiochemistry Supervisor
Laboratory Services Division
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
8100 Lowry Blvd.
Denver, CO  80230
303-692-3046 | tony.harrison at state.co.us

[cid:image001.jpg at 01CCB8AC.55015C60]<http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/>