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Re: What to do ? ? ?
In a message dated 8/12/02 10:26:26 PM Mountain Daylight Time, lists@richardhess.com writes:
Ruth, I'll respond a bit tongue in cheek to this, but I do get the point! And, you all have really made me feel better about all this!
At 10:27 PM 08/12/2002 -0400, RuthWeiner@aol.com wrote:
1. car accidents: the risk is about 10% of being in one, and about 1 % of its being fatal.
My wife and I both drive Suburbans--reported to do very well in crash tests and a friend saw people walk away from one T-boned by a Mack Truck!
I don't understand why you apply statistics to ionizing radiation and not to car accidents, for which the statistics are much better and are based on counting actual accidents and not just on speculation. You can get car accident data from the USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics website (www.bts.gov) -- the data deal with actual reported accidents. Moreover, DOT just reports numbers, unadorned by inflammatory rhetoric.
3. west Nile virus from a mosquito bite
This is another press scare. The Canadian press is reporting it to be similar to the flu and nothing to really worry about...and Canada has LOTS of mosquitos, too! We were just there for a family reunion in Manitoba and even after aerial spraying (another risk, yes, I've read "Silent Spring") of the area for the reunion, we were still pestered by mosquitos and especially flies.
This is not so. There are real countable deaths this year from West Nile virus (and by the way the use of pesticides poses much less risk). No, EVERY mosquito doesn't carry West Nile virus -- it is to be hoped that most of them don't . However, I would be much more ready to protect myself against mosquito bites than against the putative ionizing radiation from nuclear facitilies, especially those more than a mile away. You bought a radiation monitor for a trip across Idaho and Montana. If you had that degree of concern about mosquito bites you wouldn't venture outside with any part of your body uncovered -- long sleeves, gloves, long pants, a hat with mosquito netting to protect your face. You might call that "paranoia" about West Nile virus.
4. hantavirus from mice
I try and avoid mice--and their droppings.
Sure -- and I try to avoid a lot of hazards too. Believe me, as a member of the public you are much better protected from amounts of ionizing radiation that might do any harm than you are from field mice and their droppings (e.g., doesn't the dentiist cover you with a lead apron when he or she x-rays your teeth?)
8. a household accident: falling off a ladder, slipping in the tub, etc.
I actually stopped putting out outdoor holiday lights after a colleague broke a
leg falling off his roof doing same. I avoid ladders as much as I can these days. I pay experienced people to do this stuff.
Even experienced people have accidents involving ladders. More to the point -- falls in the tub can cause (and have caused) serious injury and death -- does that stop you from bathing or showering?
Here is an absolutely true story : some years ago a woman tried to get a law passed in Washington State limiting the temperature in home hot water heaters because she had scalded herself. The state legislature rejected the idea on the grounds that using reasonable prudence and judgment was plenty good enough to avoid scalding.
This story makes my point. Your responses indicate that you apply reasonable prudence and good judgment in avoiding or mitigating most common environmental threats to health and safety (and your dentist applies reasonable prudence with that lead apron). The same rational judgment should tell you that you are not going to be irradiated driving across Idaho. Moreover, the same reasoning you apply to mosquito bites should be applied to the radiation-scare book you cite (I've forgotten the name). You apparently dismiss the recorded West Nile virus deaths in New York but take the Ernest Sternglass fictions seriously.
I think the difference with radiation is that it's harder to see and it's the great unknown for most of us
Harder to see than a virus? Sure you can see a mosquito, but you can also see a nuclear power plant.
I've gone on long enough. But I wanted to make these points.
Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com