RE: Dateline NBC TMI story - A different evaluation

["Jacobus, John (OD/ORS)" <jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov>]

Mike,



We are dealing with several issues here.  One is the value of the Dateline

show.  Yes, there may have been technical inaccuracies, but I think the

issues of confusion and misstatements are important for people to

understand.  You cannot expect the public to trust you if you try to gloss

over the problems that occurred.  Yes, the experts were wrong.  I believe

that the China Syndrome was an accepted theory by the engineers at the time.

(If I am wrong, I am sure someone will tell me.)  Even so, when new data

proves it was wrong, you cannot say we did not believe in it at the time of

the accident.  That is rewriting history, which always gets you into

trouble.  What we should be emphasizing is that have we learned to do things

better.  The plants have been fixed, people are better trained, and we can

respond to emergencies.



While I sympathize with your having to deal  with the distraught mother, I

am sure that fact that you took the time and effort to allay her fears did

more than any TV show, book, or newspaper article ever could.  In some ways,

many of us are part of the problem.  We are dismissive of the fears that

people have.  The anti-nuclear people are not.  We say people are ignorant

of radiation.  The anti-nuclear people say they are right to fear radiation.

If you had a fear of flying, every accident, whether it is due to human

error, mechanical problem, or the weather, will show that you were right in

the first place.



I agree that voicing sound scientific findings is the only way we will

convince the public that radiation, even if dangerous, can be beneficial.

However, it is and will be a slow process.



One thing I learned a long time ago:  Life is not fair.  



-- John 

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist 

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD  20715-2024



E-mail:  jenday1@email.msn.com (H)      



-----Original Message-----

From: Michael Stabin [mailto:michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu]

Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 3:07 PM

To: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS); radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: Re: Dateline NBC TMI story - A different evaluation



> 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?

. . .