The Radon Cure!

["Mike Bohan" <mike.bohan@yale.edu>]

        Reply to:   The Radon Cure!

Hi RadSafers:

Just a quick note.  I forget the name of the program, but did anyone else see
this?  

I was watching TV late last night, surfing the channels and happened across a
program which was about the hormetic effects of Radon.  

They were running an EPA ad which showed children playing in a home which then
instantly froze to a black & white picture of their x-rayed skeletons!  This
is what caught my eye and I thought "Oh no, here we go again" but, as I
watched it was actually one of these pseudonews/science shows and evidently
they were establishing the governments case for the Radon hazard.

The show then showed a Radon mine in Montana (I think?) where people actually
paid to be exposed to the healthful effects of Radon.  The intrepid reporter
was checked with a GM before he entered the mine and was at background.  He
then went down the mine and there were quite a few believers down there
getting the cure!  After he left the mine he was checked with the GM, which
was offscale (on the lowest setting) when directed at his nose.  

They showed one man, an old farmer,  who had a swollen elbow taking the cure
and went back to see him a month later in Iowa and he was cured!

Also, of interest they had a short interview with Bernie Cohen which mentioned
his research on the subject and he said Radon at low levels might be good for
you.  They also interviewed someone from the EPA who said it was a deadly
carcinogen, of course!

I bring this to your attention, because this is the first time I can recall
seeing anything in the popular media which mentions the possible hormetic
effects of radiation.   

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Michael J. Bohan, RSO   |  e-mail: mike.bohan@yale.edu
Yale-New Haven Hospital |    Tele: (203) 785-2950
Radiological Physics    |     FAX: (203) 737-4252
20 York St. - WWW 204   |    As usual, everything I say may be plausibly
New Haven, CT    06504  |    denied at my employer's convenience ...
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