Posted on 03/18/2011 2:30:55 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
As workers struggle to contain the fallout from the crippled nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, people as far away as Illinois are calling public health officials in a state of panic.
They are hoping to get their hands on potassium iodide pills to protect them from radiation -- despite warnings that, in the absence of a real nuclear threat, taking the medicine is riskier than doing nothing.
"People in general have an exaggerated fear of radiation. That is true in the United States, and it is probably even more so in Japan," said Jerrold Bushberg, director of health physics programs and clinical professor of radiology and radiation oncology at the University of California Davis.
Despite the Japanese government's assurances that the risk so far is minimal, residents of Tokyo have flooded out of the city and foreigners have fled the country, hoping to escape a threat they cannot see.
The fact is that everyone is exposed to small amounts of radiation every day just from living on earth or flying in an airplane.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Iodide? Iodide? Oh, crap. I thought it was potassium cyanide.
Note to self: don't use the office water cooler for awhile.
That is Outstanding, with a capital “O”. It may have been written 20 years ago, but it’s never been more relevant than it is today. Thank you so much for sharing it. Are you Dr. Cohen?
Only works if you also eat the label off of the bottle.
Nope, but I’ve long admired his work.
See no eye protection, now she has green eyes.
After reading this chapter and his CV, I can certainly see why. Too bad the news media doesn’t use someone like that as a go-to expert rather than anti-nuke freaks with agendas best accomplished by fomenting panic.
Radium Dial? You’re kidding. I’m a 76 year old watchmaker, and as a kid apprentice we really used radium dials and renewed the radium in watch hands. I think I still have some in my bench somewhere.
Every now and then, when I re-do hands with MODERN luminous compound I, without thinking about it, tell my customer that I put new RADIUM into his watch hands. I’ve seen people turn pale, pull off their watch, threaten to sue, and one nut ran to the hospital ER, demanding treatment for radiation poisoning.
Some people will just magnify anything they hear, no thinking, no logic, no rationale, just instant panic.
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