On Media Portrayal of Nuclear "Safety"

The more I learn about how nuclear power and radiation are portrayed by certain media, the angrier and more incredulous I get. I understand that NPR and PBS are trying to portray themselves as being better than or different from the other media outlets by advocating a sense of calm rather than worry. And at first, I thought they were wise. Both organizations had been interviewing scientists who say that decontamination after exposure to radiation is easy to do; there is nothing at all to worry about; etc.

But their recent interviews with Robert DuPont, a psychiatrist who studies fears and phobias, has made me question their agenda and whether they were funded by the nuclear industry. Dupont said, basically, when it comes to nuclear power plants and the real or potential dangers of radioactive waste, we have, as the saying goes, more to fear than fear itself. 

Steve Inskeep of NPR prefaced the interview with this statement:

“As of now, the death toll from Japan's nuclear emergency stands at zero. Contrast that to the thousands of people who perished in the earthquake and the tsunami, yet it is the nuclear emergency and the threat of disaster that have captivated most of our attention.”

In the interview, Dupont stated, “Aside from the accident in Chernobyl, you really don't have the bodies piled up....” He also said “…the biggest health problem associated with Three Mile Island in the commission's report about it was the fear, was the anxiety, the mental stress that people have.”

How interesting that both NPR and Dupont consider only the initial body count and fail to note the findings of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 

and the IAEA on the health effects that Chernobyl had on its clean-up crew and area residents:

• Of the 600 firemen and emergency clean-up workers on site the day of the explosion:
• 28 died within the first three months;
• 134 developed radiation sickness
• Of these, many also suffered beta radiation skin burns, sepsis, and radiation-induced cataracts
• Of these, 19 died later on due to infections caused by radiation exposure
• Of the 350,000 clean-up workers and those who built the so-called sarcophagus to contain the radiation-spewing plant, twice as many have leukemia compared to the normal population;
• Of the children exposed to the radiation either directly or indirectly (through the ingestion of contaminated milk and other foods), the IAEA reported 4,000 cases in children aged 0-14, (WHO reported nearly 5,000 cases in children up to age 18) at the time later developed thyroid cancer. Despite the disparity, both organizations stated that these numbers are “far higher than normal.”

“Fortunately,” the WHO reported, “even in children with advanced tumours, treatment has been highly effective….However, they will need to take drugs for the rest of their lives to replace the loss of thyroid function.”  

(Treatment for thyroid cancer and thyroid drugs has such lovely side effects as damage to healthy cells and tissues; weight loss; weight gain; quickened  heart rate; chest pain; cramps, diarrhea;  infertility in men; fatigue; chills; slowed thinking, depression, constipation and muscle cramps. With such joys as these, who wouldn't want to experience these side effects for the rest of their lives?)

Last weekend, in light of the increasing pressure and danger posed by the Fukushima plant to Japan and the world at large, the Japanese government increased the allowable limit from 100 mSv per worker per shift to 150 mSv on March 18th, then to 250 mSv two days later. This was so the government and TEPCO could "legally" compel (or allow, as the case may be) workers to continue doing their jobs at the plant.

G. Donald Frey, a medical physicist and professor of radiology at the Medical University of South Carolina, said that at 150 mSv per day, "you're definitely in the range where you have significantly increased risk of radiation-induced cancers,” to say nothing of 250 mSv exposure.

The Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is also disturbed by how the press is portraying radiation. “As the crisis in Japan goes on, there are an increasing number of sources reporting that 100 mSv is the lowest dose at which a person is at risk for cancer. Established research disproves this claim. A dose of 100 mSv creates a one in 100 risk of getting cancer, but a dose of 10 mSv still gives a one in 1,000 chance of getting cancer, and a dose of 1 mSv gives a one in 10,000 risk. Even if the risk of getting cancer for one individual from a given level of food contamination is low, if thousands or millions of people are exposed, then some of those people will get cancer.”

But of course, a psychiatrist and a so-called journalist must know more than the WHO, IAEA, nuclear scientists, radioactive waste management experts, medical physicists, physicians and those who have actually studied the health effects of radiation in general and of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island in particular.

Compare the (currently) zero fatality of the nuclear plant disaster with the hundreds of thousands more, not just in Japan but around the globe, with those who would be affected in the short- and the long-term if not for the monitoring of this situation and the testing of food and water for radiation.

I’d like to invite Mr. Dupont and all the nuclear industry supporters to trade places with any of the nuclear plant’s 180 workers on what are essentially suicide missions to clean up the plant. Or with the evacuees and residents living near the plant. Stay outside when radioactive material falls from the sky in the rain and snow, as it has been doing.

Or trade places with me. 

Despite being in Tokyo and 150 miles from the nuclear reactor in question, I am now living an a place where the air was found to contain “low levels” of radiation just four days after the first explosion. The tap water, which was initially found to have “trace amounts” of radiation on March 19th were found yesterday to contain levels two times higher than legally acceptable. Even the Japanese government, which many view as having downplayed the severity of the situation at the plant and the unfolding radiation nightmare, has deemed it unsafe for infants and is distributing bottled water to families with infants.

Between four and 27 times the legal limit of radiation has also been found in the milk and 11 vegetables produced not just in Fukushima, but in three other prefectures (states) as well--Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma—of which Fukushima and Ibaraki are among the country's largest producers of fruits, vegetables and pork.

For your reference, here's a map of Japan by prefecture:

Today, Nikkei.com reported:

• The government asked six prefectures located near Fukushima (in the upper right half of the main island) -- Miyagi, Yamagata, Saitama, Chiba, Niigata and Nagano -- to enhance their inspections of vegetables. 
• The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, or JA Zen-Noh, which distributes many of the prefecture's vegetables, has not shipped any of the produce since Monday;
• However, Yoshifumi Kaji, director of the health ministry's inspection and safety division, said on Sunday it was possible some tainted foods already have been sold.

It takes 7-12 years to research, obtain permission for and build a nuclear plant. I’d like to ask all the nuclear supporters around the world, including those at NPR and PBS and  anyone stupid enough to continue advocating the building of nuclear power plants at this time to breathe this radioactive air, ingest this food and water--better yet, give it to your babies—over the next decade and then tell me nuclear power is safe and nothing to worry about.

In the meantime, I’m drinking bottled water and avoiding any food produced in Fukushima and its neighboring prefectures.

Sources:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13349

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs303/en/index.html

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/features/chernobyl-15/cherno-faq.shtml

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/19/japan.radioactive.food/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/06_16_04.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/thyroid_cancer/page6.htm

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/18/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=C1

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/03/20/radiation_discovery_fans_food_fears_in_japan/

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110324D24JF856.htm

http://www.psr.org/news-events/press-releases/psr-concerned-about-reports-increased-radioactivity-food-supply.html

http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html