Re: [tlug] Measuring radioactivity at TEPCO Fukushima plant

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Darren Cook writes:

 > I noticed reports of radioactivity detected in Tokyo water [1], though
 > still within safe limits apparently.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  That's not quite
true here, but it was even less true when FDR said it.

There is *always* radioactivity in water, from natural tritium if
nothing else.  What has been detected is *somewhat* elevated levels.
These levels have been detected because it's physically possible to do
so, and reported because FUD sells newspapers.  They're entirely
medically irrelevant (as Kalin's calculations demonstrate).  More
relevant is the number of square cm of skin you expose when outdoors
on a cloudy day, or breathing Tokyo air.  But reporting that doesn't
sell newpapers.

Please, *study* those calculations until you understand them.  If you
don't do that, having a personal Geiger counter will do nothing except
enable you to FUD yourself.

N.B.  Even the numbers quoted as "safe limits" are nothing of the
kind, as I understand it.  Wherever possible, the Japanese government
sets absurdly stringent standards in order to claim that Japanese food
is the safest in the world (and in some cases, to fend off cheap
imports).  I believe the radiological standards are among them.
Background levels of radiation are many orders of magnitude below what
affects human health.  True, any increase may have effects on the
human genome -- but if you're worried about that, the thought of
breathing the air in any large city should make you collapse in a
gibbering heap.