Re: Update (10/15): Status of patients from the JCO Criticality

["J. J. Rozental" <josrozen@netmedia.net.il>]

At 05:18 AM 10/16/99 -0500, you wrote:

>
>I have occasionally checked English/Japanese "radiation sites" and news 
>media and must say that it is surprising (??) how little one can find. This 
>probably only causes a longterm negative aftermath (as opposed to a more 
>direct and fast information strategy). Reading Radsafers is in some ways 
>more informative than many of the tradiational sources.
>
>Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
>The ideas above are mine and may not necessarily coincide by those of 
>others.

Dear Bjorn

I would like to express only my fellings on your topic:

a) The most creditable source for international information,  is the IAEA
press release. However,  as we know, only now it was  reported that a team
from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has arrived in Japan to
investigate the country's  worst nuclear accident. The IAEA in Vienna said
the three-man delegation will return to the agency's headquarters over the
weekend and prepare a report on its findings. 


b) To give an idea how is difficult to transmit some kind of information,
specially concerning contaminated people, I can compare the case of Japan
with the  Goiania Radiological Accident, although the Accident in Goiania
was worst than the Accident in Japan. 
In the first week, when we arrived in Goiania, a great effort was made to
inform the population about contaminated people,  using the press, radio and
television, talking  in  simple language  and concepts to avoid
misunderstandings, due public fear and anxiety.   How to use the press
during an accident to inform health conditions using our jargon? How people,
worried about the health of his family, can understand words like Bequerels,
Sieverts and so on?  To give a  figure, in the Radiological accident in
Goiania, there were  a total of 249 contaminated people in the range of 1 to
73 years old.
I can understand, distant of  the scenario, the lack of technical
information. In serious nuclear or radiological accident,  it is important
to talk to 99.9 percent of the local population in language that they can
understand and not to few experts, distant of the scene of accident. I am
sure that there are in Japan, now, scientists and doctors expressing their
views and using  their  own terminology. Probably the same that were in
Brazil, besides our own: Dr. Gale, Dr. Nenot, Dr. Oberhofer,  Dr. G.
Drexler,  Dr. Selidovkin, Dr. Ricks, Dr. Lushbaugh.  We have to wait a
little more for precise technical  information.

Best Regards,

J. J. Rozental
josrozen@netmedia.net.il
Israel








jjrozental

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