Fear of radiation

There was an article in the New York Times this morning (Tuesday Oct 22, 2013) about the fear of radiation Fear of Radiation (NY Times).  The author makes some statements about how we might have unfounded fear of radiation and that Chernobyl and Fukushima survivors and that the cancer rate has been less than expected.  The author goes on to state that the number of cancer victims from ionizing radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was much lower than the total number of cancer cases (527 out of 10,929 cancer cases).

I worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago during the Three Mile Island incident.  I heard a very interesting lecture about our knowledge of human radiation susceptibility.  It turned out that all of our radiation rate numbers from nuclear bomb tests in Alamogordo, NM were in dry weather and significantly above sea level.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki had significantly higher humidity and different concrete makeup than found in most US cities.  Absorption of prompt radiation was higher than expected.  It is likely that the Japanese people received less radiation than we expected and our understanding of how much radiation we can stand might be underestimated.

The lack of data in this area of study is amazing.  We did not have the opportunity to measure radiation at Chernobyl, Fukushima, Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the most critical time, namely, when short-lived radioactive elements are most intense.  By the time measurements were made, the really dangerous stuff had already decayed.  The measurements need to be done the day of the event.  A lot of people may have died of radiation poisoning without dying of cancer.

Meanwhile, we are afraid of radiation from cell phones.  The 2-5 GHz range of radiation at a few watts is non-ionizing.  It can't cause chemical reactions just by ripping electrons from atoms like with ionizing radiation.  But, it can go through a cooking process.  Are we afraid of light bulbs?  If we are afraid of cell phone radiation, we should be afraid of sitting underneath a 75 watt light bulb.  The radiation isn't all that different.  We have cell replacement that repairs damage from a very slow cooking process that happens in slightly elevated temperatures.

I am not sure how we get better radiation data.  We certainly do not want to purposely put people in harmful environments.  But, we do need to take better and more prompt data when accidents do occur.  Unfortunately, covering up the problem and politics dominates and inhibits prompt measurements.