NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm watching Horizon at the moment on BBC one (For anyone who doesnt know, Horizon is a BBC show about science) and they are suggesting that radiation, in small doses, is not as dangerous as we thought. They are basing this conclusions of two facts (so far, we are only half way through), that after Chenobyl there should have been 4,000 deaths easily attribuatble to the chenobyl disaster. There have, in fact, been 56. Secondly, there are animals there recieving the equivilant of 8,000 chest x-rays per day, and yet are taking no genetic damage.

EDIT: There have been two more facts shown since I started typing. Inj eastern America, with higher background radiation levels, cancer is LOWER than in the west. Secondly, airline pirates, who gain the equivilant of 11 thousand chest x-rays a yar, there is no increase in the risk of radiation.

Can anyone disprove these facts, or are we worrying more than neccersary?

It means that we don't have to bury that nuclear waste that's been piling up - we can just dump it in the local river.

And we can start nuking countries we don't like - just like we used to do in the good old days.

Certain kinds of radiation are dangerous, and I'm pretty sure all those animals eat the deformed ones since, you know, it's the fucking wild.

It means that we don't have to bury that nuclear waste that's been piling up - we can just dump it in the local river.

And we can start nuking countries we don't like - just like we used to do in the good old days.
Nucking countries is not classed as a "low dose"

They are now also claiming that low doses MAY actually be beneficial, in that they force the body activate genes that fight cancer, slightly reducing your chance of getting cancer.

I'm sure what they don't tell you is while studying some of this, they wore anti-radiation suits.

Why is this news to anyone?

We are bombarded by low level radiation from the earth, the sun, the cosmos in general, for our entire lives. If we could not resist low to medium levels of background radiation, our species would have vanished long before we knew anything about radiation to start with.

Why is this news to anyone?

We are bombarded by low level radiation from the earth, the sun, the cosmos in general, for our entire lives. If we could not resist low to medium levels of background radiation, our species would have vanished long before we knew anything about radiation to start with.

sshhhh. you're contradicting the alarmists!

BTW, nuking is high dose for the countries you nuke - but as for the fallout that makes it back to your own country, that's low dose.

and I want to know more about the "airline pirates"

airline pirates

...I thought they had Airline Ninjas

Secondly, airline pirates, who gain the equivilant of 11 thousand chest x-rays a yar, there is no increase in the risk of radiation.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

It's long been suggested that small stresses on a system force it to remain active. I imagine that keeping genes like p53 nice and active helps them remain effective in combatting DNA damage (to put things into perspective, a damaged p53 pair of alleles is present in >50% of cancer cases - that's how important a tumour suppressing gene it is).

AB - yeah, they discussed that. If I remember the programme's figures correctly, the suggestion was that the average background radiation dose is 3.6millisieverts, whereas the statistical data for radiation doses below 200millisieverts was particularly sketchy. Originally, a line of best fit based on higher dose data was used and extrapolated below 200millisieverts, which is where the 4,000 Chernobyl deaths figure came from. Recent studies are suggesting that the number of deaths for a dose below about 100millisieverts (I think) was either almost zero (as if 100ms was the cut-off point for low-dose radiation damage) and even that it improved the life expectancy.

Then again, I wasn't really watching it.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Beat me to it. :(

Then theres all that nasty radioactive cornish granite..... some of which is more radioactive than the stuff we classify as nuclear waste..........



El-Presidente Boris

Something to consider: If you wrap a piece of Plutonium in clingfilm(or clearwrap for our US readers) its perfectly safe to handle as the alpha particles emitted by the plutonium when it decays are far too fat and lardy to make it through.:p

Radiation is good for you. Gamma rays made Bruce Banner grow strong and green. Spiderman's got radioactive blood according to the theme song. Radioactivity clearly makes people into superheros who fight crime.

Radiation is good for you. Gamma rays made Bruce Banner grow strong and green. Spiderman's got radioactive blood according to the theme song. Radioactivity clearly makes people into superheros who fight crime.
"Mayor West, I'm afraid you've developed radiation poisoning. What have you been doing recently that might have caused this?"

"I rolled in toxic waste in order to become superhuman."

"Well...that's just insane."

Paraphrased, like all my quotes, but damn if Family guy doesn't have a quote for everything :D

Then theres all that nasty radioactive cornish granite..... some of which is more radioactive than the stuff we classify as nuclear waste..........



El-Presidente Boris

Something to consider: If you wrap a piece of Plutonium in clingfilm(or clearwrap for our US readers) its perfectly safe to handle as the alpha particles emitted by the plutonium when it decays are far too fat and lardy to make it through.:p

WTF is clearwrap?

I must have some for my plutonium.

WTF is clearwrap?

I must have some for my plutonium.
I think it's like saran wrap.

WTF is clearwrap?

I must have some for my plutonium.

Wiki knows all. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cling_wrap)

WTF is clearwrap?

I must have some for my plutonium.
http://www.scienceshorts.com/020225_cling_film.jpg

EDIT: Damn you, Dinaverg. Always one step ahead...

No.....clearwrap TM

Its for US readers I hear

http://www.scienceshorts.com/020225_cling_film.jpg

EDIT: Damn you, Dinaverg. Always one step ahead...

^_____^

Hey, you made a Zombie Bunneh! I made one of those once...

Hey, you made a Zombie Bunneh! I made one of those once...

Aye. I had to after BritSter kept killing them.

Yay bunnies! (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/Dragonkirby/Non-Kirby/Bunnies/)