[ RadSafe ] The Campaign to Keep People Ignorant of Naturally Occurring Radiation Continues
Sander Perle
sandyfl at cox.net
Wed Jan 3 17:19:20 CST 2018
Brian,
I agree with you and all previous comments. Some of you may recall that I put out a “nuclear related news” list, contents and then the articles. There were some who criticized but the majority appreciated the news. My purpose was to educate our professionals to be aware of what the public could be reading and be in a better position to respond to what was being published. Unfortunately, my time didn’t allow me to continue the publication.
Regards,
Sandy
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 3, 2018, at 15:13, Rees, Brian G <brees at lanl.gov> wrote:
>
> What she said.
>
> I KNOW we could go to some of these sites ourselves to find out what some of these folks are saying, but I hate to generate any traffic that they might exploit for fund raising or to increase their perceived credibility.
>
> Already having been exposed to the statements they've made makes me not only better prepared, but more credible since I've considered both sides.
>
> If it were put to a vote, I'd ask Roger to continue.
>
> Brian Rees
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RadSafe [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Milligan, Patricia
> Sent: Wednesday, January 3, 2018 2:18 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The Campaign to Keep People Ignorant of Naturally Occurring Radiation Continues
>
> I think it is always useful to see what people are thinking and saying. In particular I find it useful to read these because then I think about their arguments and develop coherent talking points to address these concerns should I be asked about them, rather than being caught off guard and having to invent an answer on the spot.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RadSafe [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Delvan Neville
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2018 3:04 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Subject: [External_Sender] Re: [ RadSafe ] The Campaign to Keep People Ignorant of Naturally Occurring Radiation Continues
>
> It isn't. Its just Roger forwarding on these sorts of blog posts, and I believe he intends to stop. He's been sharing them because he is outraged by them, not endorsing them, and thought they would foster discussion here.
>
>> On Wed, 3 Jan 2018, 6:02 am Jason Meade, <meadeja at vcu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> When did this group become a rabid anti-nuclear and F everyone who
>> tries to bring perspective into the discussion listserv?
>>
>>> On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 4:01 AM, Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Jim Green exposes the nuclear lobby’s lies about bananas
>>>
>>> by Christina MacPherson
>>>
>>> “The more the nuclear industry claims eating plutonium, strontium,
>>> cesium, iodine and other fuel and fission products is OK because
>>> bananas exist and because the potassium is a needed nutrient, the
>>> more I consider them to be blatant liars.”
>>>
>>> The Banana Equivalent Dose of catastrophic nuclear accidents, Jim
>>> Green, Online Opinion, 20 December 2017,
>>> http://onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19475&page=0
>>>
>>> The ‘Nuclear for Climate’ lobby group recently attended the United
>>> Nations’ COP23 climate conference armed with bananas, in order to
>>> make specious comparisons between radiation exposures from eating
>>> bananas and routine emissions from nuclear power plants.
>>>
>>> One of the reasons the comparison is specious is that some exposures
>>> are voluntary, others aren’t. Australian academic Prof. Barry Brook
>>> said in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster: “People don’t
>>> understand that they live in an environment that is awash with
>>> radiation and they make decisions every day which affect their
>>> radiation dose ‒ they hop on an airplane or eat a banana or sit
>>> close to the TV.” True ‒ but people choose to hop on an airplane or
>>> eat a banana or sit close to the TV, whereas radiation doses from
>>> nuclear plants and nuclear accidents are usually involuntary.
>>>
>>> Another reason why the comparison made by ‘Nuclear for Climate’ is
>>> specious is that it ignores spikes in radioactive emissions during
>>> reactor refueling. Radiation biologist Dr Ian Fairlie notes that
>>> when nuclear reactors are refueled, a 12-hour spike in radioactive
>>> emissions exposes local people to levels of radioactivity up to 500
>>> times greater than during normal operation. The spikes may explain
>>> infant leukemia increases near nuclear plants − but operators
>>> provide no warnings and take no measures to reduce exposures.
>>>
>>> The comparison between bananas and nuclear power plants also ignores
>>> the spike in emissions and radiation doses following catastrophic
>>> accidents. So, what’s the Banana Equivalent Dose (yes, that’s a
>>> thing) of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters?
>>>
>>> According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the
>>> collective effective dose from Chernobyl was 600,000 person-Sieverts.
>>> The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
>>> estimates radiation exposure from the Fukushima disaster at 48,000
>>> person-Sieverts.
>>>
>>> Combined, exposure from Chernobyl and Fukushima is estimated at
>>> 648,000 person-Sieverts. Exposure from eating a banana is estimated
>>> at between 0.09-2.3 microSieverts. Let’s use a figure of 0.1
>>> microSievert per banana. Thus, exposure from Chernobyl and Fukushima
>>> equates to
>>> 6,480,000,000,000 Banana Equivalent Doses ‒ that’s 6.48 trillion
>>> bananas or, if you prefer, 6.48 terabananas or 6,480 gigabananas.
>>>
>>> End-to-end, that many 15-cm (6-inch) bananas would stretch 972
>>> million kilometres ‒ far enough to reach the sun 6.5 times over, or
>>> the moon
>>> 2,529 times over.
>>>
>>> Potassium cycle
>>>
>>> Another reason the comparison made by ‘Nuclear for Climate’ is
>>> specious is explained by Dr Gordon Edwards from the Canadian
>>> Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility:
>>>
>>> “[T]he body already has a lot of “natural” potassium including K-40
>>> [which is unavoidable], and any new “natural” potassium ingested is
>>> balanced by eliminating a comparable amount of “natural” potassium
>>> to maintain the “homeostasis” of the body. In other words the body’s
>>> own mechanisms will not allow for a net increase in potassium levels
>>> – and therefore will not allow for an increase in K-40 content in the body.
>>>
>>> “Here’s what the Oak Ridge Associated Universities has to say; (ORAU
>>> was founded in 1946 as the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.):
>>> ‘The human body maintains relatively tight homeostatic control over
>>> potassium levels. This means that the consumption of foods
>>> containing large amounts of potassium will not increase the body’s
>>> potassium content. As such, eating foods like bananas does not
>>> increase your annual radiation dose. If someone ingested potassium
>>> that had been enriched in K-40, that would be another story.’
>>>
>>> “The same argument does not work for radioactive caesium, or for any
>>> of the radioactive pollutants given off by a nuclear power plant,
>>> because most of these materials do not exist in nature at all – and
>>> those that do exist in nature are not subject to the same
>>> homeostatic mechanism that the body uses to control potassium
>>> levels. Consequently any foodstuffs or beverages containing
>>> radioactive caesium or other man-made radioactive pollutants will
>>> cause an additional annual dose of ionizing radiation to the person so exposed.”
>>>
>>> Likewise, Linda Gunter explained in a 16 November 2017 article:
>>>
>>> “At the COP23 Climate Talks currently underway in Bonn, a group
>>> calling itself Nuclear for Climate, wants you to slip on their false
>>> banana propaganda and fall for their nonsensically unscientific
>>> notion that bananas are actually more dangerous than nuclear power
>>> plants! I am not making this up. Here is the picture.
>>>
>>> “The oxymoronic Nuclear for Climate people are handing out bananas
>>> complete with a sticker that reads: “This normal, every-day banana
>>> is more radioactive than living near a nuclear power plant for one year.”
>>> …
>>>
>>> “If you smell something rotten in this banana business, you are right.
>>> So let’s peel off the propaganda right now. In short, when you eat a
>>> banana, your body’s level of potassium-40 doesn’t increase. You just
>>> get rid of some excess potassium-40. The net dose of a banana is zero.
>>>
>>> “To explain in more detail, the tiny radiation exposure due to
>>> eating a banana lasts only for a few hours after ingestion, namely
>>> the time it takes for the normal potassium content of the body to be
>>> regulated by the kidneys. Since our bodies are under homeostatic
>>> control, the body’s level of potassium-40 doesn’t increase after eating a banana.
>>> The body just gets rid of some excess potassium-40.
>>>
>>> “The banana bashers don’t want you to know this and instead try to
>>> pretend that the potassium in bananas is the same as the genuinely
>>> dangerous man-made radionuclides ‒ such as cesium-137 and
>>> strontium-90 ‒ that are released into our environment from nuclear
>>> power facilities, from atomic bomb tests and from accidents like
>>> Fukushima and Chernobyl.
>>>
>>> “These radioactive elements, unlike the potassium-40 in bananas, are
>>> mistaken by the human body for more familiar elements. For example,
>>> ingested radioactive strontium-90 replaces stable calcium, and
>>> ingested radioactive cesium-137 replaces stable potassium. These
>>> nuclides can lodge in bones and muscles and irradiate people from
>>> within. This is internal radiation and can lead to very serious,
>>> long-lasting and trans-generational health impacts.”
>>>
>>> An unfortunate incident in Goiania, Brazil in September 1987
>>> illustrates the hazards of cesium-137, a fission product. Two people
>>> stole a radiotherapy source from a disused medical clinic. A
>>> security guard did not show up to work that day; he went instead to
>>> the cinema to see ‘Herbie Goes Bananas‘. The radiotherapy source
>>> contained 93 grams of cesium-137. It was sold to a junkyard dealer.
>>> Many people were exposed to the radioactive cesium and they spread
>>> the contamination to other sites within and beyond the town. At
>>> least four people died from exposure to the radiation source and,
>>> according to the IAEA, “many others” suffered radiation injuries.
>>> Those injured included eight patients who required surgical
>>> debridments, amputation of the digital extremities and plastic skin
>>> grafts. The incident was rated Level 5 (‘Accident with Off Site
>>> Risk’) on the 7-point International Nuclear Event Scale.
>>>
>>> Terrorists don’t arm themselves with bananas
>>>
>>> There is a long history of nuclear power plants being used directly
>>> and indirectly in support of nuclear weapons programs. Bananas are
>>> of no interest to nuclear weapons proliferators. There’s no Treaty
>>> on the Non-Proliferation of Bananas, no Comprehensive Test Banana
>>> Treaty, no Anti-Banana Missile Treaty. Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump
>>> aren’t threatening each other with bananas; not yet, at least.
>>>
>>> Nuclear historian Paul Langley notes that terrorists don’t arm
>>> themselves with bananas:
>>>
>>> “The potassium cycle in humans is no excuse for nuclear authorities
>>> anywhere on the planet to claim any benefit or natural precedent for
>>> the marketing of nuclear industry emissions contaminated food.
>>>
>>> “The fission products are not nutrients. Do not eat them. The
>>> nuclear industry promises to keep its radioactive sources sealed.
>>> When the industry invariably fails in this undertaking, it turns
>>> around and claims that the residue of its pollution is like a
>>> banana. Crap. The residue is like the residue of a rad weapon. Fact.
>>> It’s the same stuff. Terrorists do not attempt to arm themselves
>>> with bananas. They are not dangerous.
>>>
>>> “Radio Strontium, Radio Iodine, Radio cesium have NO PLACE in food.
>>> Nuke is not clean, it is not green and it relies on lies it has
>>> concocted over decades. … The more the nuclear industry claims
>>> eating plutonium, strontium, cesium, iodine and other fuel and
>>> fission products is OK because bananas exist and because the
>>> potassium is a needed nutrient, the more I consider them to be blatant liars.”
>>>
>>> Christina MacPherson | December 20, 2017 at 9:07 pm | Categories: 2
>>> WORLD, Reference, spinbuster | URL: https://wp.me/phgse-yJH
>>> :
>>> http://nuclear-news.net/2017/12/20/jim-green-exposes-the-
>>> nuclear-lobbys-lies-about-bananas/
>>>
>>> Thanks for flying with WordPress.com
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks,
>> Jason A Meade, AS, BS, MHSA, RRPT, R.T.(T) Senior Radiation Safety
>> Specialist Virginia Commonwealth University
>>
>>
>> Sanger Hall, B2-016
>> 1101 East Marshall St
>> PO Box 980112
>> Richmond, VA 23298-0112
>>
>> meadeja at vcu.edu
>>
>> 330-347-0271 cell/work
>> 804-828-0594 office
>>
>> "A society grows great
>> when old men plant trees
>> whose shade they know
>> they shall never sit in."
>> -Old Greek proverb
>>
>> "You call this bad? I'll tell you what bad is....
>> Bad is passing test depth at 80 feet per second with a thirty degree
>> down bubble.
>> Compared to that, this is a walk in the park."
>> -Carlo Ciliberti
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