[ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR low-level exposure Forcing changes on perception a Herculean task

Thu Feb 7 15:59:42 CST 2013

Friends,

One of the issues that may come up for discussion will be the conflict of interest of the participants in the game.In spite of the fact that Late Dr Bernard Cohen was an academic, a tenured physics professor anti nuclear lobby used to characterize him as a pronuclear advocate.

Forcing change of perception is a very difficult process. Currently in India there is a raging controversy over cell tower/phone radiation. The very fact that the IARC placed Radio-frequency fields as possible carcinogens has sealed the argument at least in so far as anti-cell radiation enthusiasts are concerned. Many popular news papers ran stories based on perception.I have sent very authentic documents published by the WHO and articles by the National cancer Institute, American Cancer Society etc to reporters of leading dailies every one said, "thank you very much" acknowledging receipt of the reading material. None used it.May be  no one wants to spoil a good story that may grow legs!

Finally, the leading business daily ,The Economic Times accepted my article! I could successfully persuade one senior reporter to read the material I gave. Some positive developments took place.In the comments column at least some of them called me an agent of cell phone industry.It kept me busy responding to the comments of readers.Mind you this paper has a discerning readership!

It gave me a good chance to see how difficult the issues can become.

In the case of LNT, I recall US GAO published a good report on the expense to maintain it, knowing fully well that there are only few specialists who will vouch for its validity!

regards
Parthasarathy  

________________________________
 From: Jerry Cohen <jjcohen at prodigy.n
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu> 
Sent: Thursday, 7 February 2013, 22:27
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR low-level exposure report

Victor,
   I think you have beautifully characterized the nature of the LNT problem. Of course, It is one thing to know the nature of the problem, but quite another to understand how to deal with it. In this case, it may require changing basic human nature. Good Luck!
Jerry cohen
----- Original Message ----- From: "Victor Anderson" <victor.anderson at frontier.com>
To: "'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList'" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>; "'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList'" <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2013 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR low-level exposure report

> Good Morning,
> 
> An interesting report full of much bureaucratic waffle language.  To be
> chartable, these various groups do have to exercise some caution in their
> statements and recommendations.  Having written that, I have spent some time
> looking at various articles on LNT.  The vast majority of these articles
> question LNT use at low dose rates.  My opinion is that many administrators
> who don't understand radiation relay on LNT risk estimates because it makes
> life simple.  Its real easy to do the third grade math and convince yourself
> and others that this is a "real" risk with "real cancer deaths" in the
> thousands to tens of thousands.  Next, comes the call for more regulations
> and more budget and more staff.  With more budget and staff comes promotions
> and more pay.  Thus, government organizations like the EPA end up in
> entrenched positions like the one on Radon or their infamous remediation
> rules.  Sadly, this is fed by unscientific studies published by the
> anti-nuclear crowd.  I had one person tell me that birds were falling out of
> the sky in Northern California during the height of the Fukushima releases.
> Being the guy in charge of the state's monitoring of air, etc., I knew that
> this was just hysteria.  I tried to explain to this person that he had not
> been told the truth.  It was like dealing with some weird version of
> Orwell's 1984.  The best I can get was an acknowledgment that maybe I knew
> what I was talking about.  Its going to take a lot of work to counter the
> hysterical and untrue anti-radiation, anti-nuclear propaganda.  I don't have
> a good answer.
> 
> Victor
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Carol Marcus
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 6:32 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] UNSCEAR low-level exposure report
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Steve:
> 
> This is the same report.
> 
> Ciao, Carol
> 
> On 2/6/2013 6:12 PM, Steven Dapra wrote:
>> Feb. 6
>> 
>>     Try this link:
>> 
>> http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/67/46
>> 
>>     The report is 21 pages of PDF with footnotes and no bibliography.
>> 
>>     The quote in the William Tucker article will be found on page 10
>> of the linked report.  The portion of the report that discusses LL
>> exposure is Chapter III, which begins on page 9.
>> 
>> Steven Dapra
>> 
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