The legacy media’s focus on releases of radioactivity from post-tsunami nuclear plant problems in Japan is turning my stomach.
- The radioactivity is not very high (but getting higher, and this is worrying me).
- There is zero information provided about the relationship of distance to the level of radioactivity.
- There is no cognizance of the fact that we are very good at detecting radioactivity at extremely minute levels.
People will die from:
- Lack of water
- Lack of sanitation
- Lack of prompt medical care
- Lack of food
- Lack of shelter
People may die from exposure to radiation.
You have an ethics problem if you can’t admit that there is a magnitude of difference.
There are lots of calculators out there that can tell you the risk of the radiation. Right up next to the power plants — where there are no people but there are detection instruments — there are reports of 400 milliSieverts. Exposure to that would increase my lifetime chance of cancer from 45% to 47%. That’s not nothing. That’s why there are no people right there.
N.B. You should also recognize that 1) since radiation is easy to measure, and 2) you’re not being fed any radiation measurements from reporters on the scene, that 3) it’s likely the measurements are so low that they are being withheld because no one would pay attention to them if they were.
