Friday, March 25, 2011

Radiation Spewing From Fukushima

Well-reported plumes of radiation have spread to California and beyond from the wrecked six-reactor complex at Fukushima, Japan. What's worse in terms of citizen awareness, clouds of disinformation are circling even faster.

The consequences of Japan's disaster cubed — earthquakes, a tsunami and spewing radiation — can hardly be exaggerated, with over 22,000 people reportedly killed or missing, widespread contamination by long-lasting isotopes like cesium, and an early estimate of $250 billion in damages.

Yet within the blizzard of radiation being dispersed uncontrollably, day after day, from Japan's wrecked reactors and their dry pools of burning-hot waste fuel, it's important to note the storm of reassuring but erroneous lullabies about "safe," "harmless" and "less than dangerous" exposures.

There is no level of radiation exposure, no matter how small, that is harmless. Every federal agency that regulates radioactive pollution agrees.

Any exposure raises cancer risk

The National Council on Radiation Protection says, "… every increment of radiation exposure produces an incremen tal increase in the risk of cancer."

No comments:

Post a Comment