Radiation - a perspective

[Mr. Bloom]

For my generation, the word RADIATION conjures an emotional response.

I saw this morning that traces of radiation have been found in milk in Spokane.

My perspective was challenged years ago when I visited a scrap metal facility near downtown Memphis that exclusively salvaged metal from nuclear power plants. The workers would run Geiger Counters over a large piece of metal and mark the "hot" spots. The hot spots were cut out and sent to a special facility and the rest would go to a normal scrap yard.

Amazed by all the Geiger Counters clicking away and the lack of "special" radiation suits in what was essentially a large, open warehouse, I asked the owner why I shouldn't feel nervous.

His response astounded me and challenged my perspective. He said: "There's more curies of radiation in a hospital than there was in his facility". We view hospitals as "safe", but they're "hotter" than we know...or low levels of radiation are more common than we suspect.

The word still scares me...but at least I didn't run out and buy iodine tablets a couple weeks ago...

[shootingstar]

I agree Mr.Bloom but it would help ease alot of people's unease if the radiation was contained at the damaged nuclear power plants.

But they haven't contained it completely yet. :(

[OakLeaf]

All radiation is not alike, and that's what's being obscured. Each different isotope, just like each non-radioactive element or compound, is recognized by the body as something different (famiiarly, cesium is recognized as potassium, strontium goes to the bones, iodine to the thyroid, and for that matter, carbon monoxide is recognized as oxygen). Internal emitters are far more damaging than external sources, and air sampling isn't always sensitive enough to know when people (or other organisms) are ingesting radioactive substances. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3798285 News sources are comparing annual doses of externally-emitted background radiation to hourly doses, as though we could shut off our exposure after an hour like throwing the switch on an X-ray machine.

Obviously panic outside of Japan isn't helpful, and especially not panic over radiation that minimizes the enormous dangers of coal-based energy and offers coal as a substitute. But there's a lot of nonsense being spouted in the name of reassurance, and that isn't helpful, either.

[Bike Writer]

Mr. Bloom, we must be of near similar generation because it conjurs up the same image for me. I got a queasy feeling reading about radiation levels in my state today. Sigh.

[KnottedYet]

Yup, all "radiation" is not the same.

It's kind of cute, the way eating radioactive isotopes is being compared to absorbing radiation energy from flying. Ah, the news outlets, they would never dumb-down any scientific information. /snark

The plane ride ends in a few hours. Ingested isotopes do not. You cannot walk away from the very molecules of your being.

Duration matters, and when you've absorbed the SOURCE, duration doesn't end until every single atom has done it's thing. You can't get away from it.

Kind of like saying: Look, I can wave my finger through this candle flame, and I don't get burnt! So you go right ahead and leave your finger in that candle for 8 days, you won't get hurt either!

(If you've never waved your finger through a candle flame, I suggest you try it. Doesn't hurt a bit. But the longer you leave it there....)

Here's a little fun with radiation. Remember, kids, duration is the key!
http://xkcd.com/radiation/

[OakLeaf]

(If you've never waved your finger through a candle flame, I suggest you try it. Doesn't hurt a bit. But the longer you leave it there....)

Heh. As in, the media is doing the "Lawrence of Arabia" thing. "Of course it hurts. The trick is not to mind."

[KnottedYet]

Brief enough exposure: no, it doesn't hurt.

Walking across a bed of hot coals: no pain, no damage.

Stick a coal in your pocket and keep it there until it is completely dead: pain and damage.

Walk past a glob of radioactive iodine: no pain, no damage.

Swallow a glob of radioactive iodine: pain and damage.

Two different situations using the same material, two very different outcomes. The media is mixing the two, and a lot of people have forgotten their high school physics. So they're cheerfully chirping along...