Re: Dateline NBC TMI story - A different evaluation

["Michael Stabin" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>]

> The purpose of these shows is to attract viewers, entertain them (?) and

> hope they buy the sponsors products.  There is a propensity on this list

> server to think that anything that is not pro-nuclear is a plot.



John, this is not quite fair. The media may not be involved in a plot, but

the anti-nuclear activists are, and the media have been taken in by it.

People are scared beyond what is reasonable based on the true risks, and to

say so does not imply a pro-nuclear bias, only the voicing of a responsible

scientific opinion in the midst of of irresponsible scare tactics. I had a

woman on the phone the other day that was extremely worried that her young

children were going to die of cancer because they had been exposed to a

small amount (below background levels for a small portion of a year) of

radiation after she had received a nuclear medicine scan and spent time near

them at home. This wonderful lady was genuinely distraught, because of her

perceptions of these low or nonexistent radiation risks. I say that we have

both a responsibility, from a professional and humanly compassionate

standpoint, to help folks get things in perspective.



I have this suspicion that the stress caused by excessive worry about

radiation may have caused more cancers than the radiation itself. If we

prove this one day, ya think the TV stations, newspapers and anti-nukes be

lining up to give away money to the victims?





Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP

Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

Vanderbilt University

1161 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37232-2675

Phone (615) 322-3190

Fax   (615) 322-3764

e-mail  michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu



"Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of"

- Steven Wright





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