BRATTLEBORO — As a layman who is well-versed in the health effects of radiation, I am offended by the misleading comments of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japanese and U.S. government officials, and media commentators regarding the radiation being inflicted on the people of Japan, the region, and the world.
Radiation exposure is cumulative. As the work of Dr. John Goffman, a Manhattan Project participant, demonstrated back in the 1980s, there is no safe level of radiation. Every cumulative increase in exposure over a lifetime correlates to an increase in catastrophic health effects.
When we hear government, nuclear industry, or media comparisons of a radiation exposure to a chest X-ray or to background radiation levels, as if these are normal or safe, we are hearing the echoes of outdated Cold War propaganda, when science was bent to serve nuclear ambitions.
Every discussion of radiation exposure must include the facts that a) there is no level of exposure that is safe, and b) the dangers of exposure to background, medical, or industrial radiation increase with each successive exposure.
Just because people's hair isn't falling out and their skin hasn't turned black doesn't mean that any given exposure is not dangerous. Every exposure increases the risk and likelihood that negative health effects will be found.
Comparing doses without stating that the dangers of exposure to radiation are cumulative is either a sign of a profound and inexcusable scientific illiteracy, or a desire to mislead the public.