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Re: Suggestions? and MSC story to be on CBS- Misuse of language
I guess I'm very close to being saturated with postings that point out the
unfairness of the media.
Please conserve precious bandwidth and limit postings to something we don't
already know!
Incidentally, letters protesting that an accident where "only" a few lives are
lost, or "only" a few people were unnecessarily exposed to radiation, is not
a disaster do not make us look like the conscientious and caring safety people
I know we are.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
Theodore S Bohn/BST/LMITCO/INEEL/US wrote:
> CHOICE OF WORDS!
> You'll notice that the choice of words and their placement in jounalistic
> articles of nuclear accidents can completely bias the message. For example
> I've noticed that whenever mention is made to the JCO, TMI or Chernobyl
> incidents they are always followed up by the reminder, ".. THE MOST
> DISASTEROUS NUCLEAR ACCIDENT in Japan, US or world as if the reader doesn't
> already know.
>
> Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu on 01/10/2000 11:49:06
> AM
>
> Please respond to radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>
> Sent by: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> cc:
>
> Subject: Re: Suggestions? and MSC story to be on CBS- Misuse of language
>
> On Mon, 10 Jan 2000 RADPROJECT@aol.com wrote:
> > When language is misused to the extent it commonly is in societal and
> media
> > reporting, one has crossed into a very dangerous area. George Orwell
> warned
> > about "The Misuse [or Corruption] of Language" in a very insightful
> essay
> > over 40 years ago, and further warned in his book "1984" about the
> meaning
> > of words being manipulated to mean whatever some self-serving ministry of
> > information wanted them to mean [i.e.: black-white].
> >
> > The word "disaster" has some implicit meaning in terms of magnitude of
> injury
> > or loss that should not just be glossed over by equating one death to
> > thousands of deaths in other cases, because the one death in an
> industrial
> > accident involves radioactive material.
> >
> > While the loss of even one person in an accident is tragic, I believe it
> not
> > proper to casually equate it to disasters in which thousands died. This
> is a
> > corruption of language and thought that should not be tolerated, since it
> > crosses over into propaganda.
>
> A copy of the letter I sent to Reuters follows:
>
> January 7, 2000
> Mr. Steven Jukes, Editor
> Reuters News Agency
> 1333 H St., NW
> Washington, DC
>
> Dear Mr. Jukes:
> I am writing to point out a gross misrepresentation in a Reuters
> Dispatch from London, Dec. 31. It listed the 27 worst disasters of 1999,
> for each event giving the date and the number of deaths resulting. The
> latter varied from 20 to 30,000 deaths. However, there was one exception
> to this pattern, the Sept. 30 nuclear accident in Japan for which there
> were no deaths listed; it stated only that "69 people were exposed to
> radiation".
> This treatment implies that being exposed to radiation is in some
> sense equivalent to being killed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
> The exposures of these 69 people were so small that none of them is
> expected to be harmed in any way; there is only a small probability that
> as many as one of them will eventually develop cancer as a result.
> Actually, their exposures were lower than those received by millions of
> Americans every year due to radon in their homes.
> The only important harm to human health was to the three workers
> whose mistake caused the accident, one of whom eventually died. The other
> two suffered injuries from which they have recovered.
> In summary, this was an industrial accident that killed one worker
> and injured two others. How does this deserve being included on a list of
> the years worst disasters? Industrial accidents kill 1800 workers per year
> in Japan, and several times that number in U.S.. Why aren't these
> thousands of other accidents on your list?
> Sincerely
>
> >
> Bernard L. Cohen
> Physics Dept.
> University of Pittsburgh
> Pittsburgh, PA 15260
> Tel: (412)624-9245
> Fax: (412)624-9163
> e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu
>
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