Calm Down!  Just take a deep breath and calm down!

There is been a plethora of “experts” paraded across the tube trying to calm the sensibilities of the American people over the possible contamination from radiation pouring out of reactors in tsunami torn Japan…….CALM DOWN!

Here is a quickie for your history buffs…….about 25 years ago we had the same scenario playing out in the world……we bombed Libya and Chernobyl was heating up (no pun intended)……okay on to the main point of this post……

If you are old (like me) then you will remember all the fear that was foisted onto the American people back in the days of the Cold War…..we told that we could die from radiation and we were told how to protect ourselves from it…..like hiding under your desk…..now there was a brilliant idea……we were told that fallout….even if miles away would still infect us with all sorts of biblical afflictions….boils, loss of hair, blindness,  frogs (no that one was not in there)….anyway you get the picture….we were told that it was bad…..really BAD!

But now it is not so bad that we need to worry about any sickness……but how bad is bad?

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica:-

“The average total dose received from all three [natural] sources by a person residing at sea level is approximately 0.91 mSv per year; however, a dose twice this size [which makes 1.82 mSv per year] may be received by a person residing at a higher elevation such as Denver, Colo., where cosmic rays are more intense, or by a person residing in a geographic region where the radium content of the soil is relatively high.   In the latter type of region, the radioactive gas radon, which is formed in the decay of radium, may enter a dwelling through its floor or basement walls and accumulate in the indoor air unless the dwelling is well ventilated periodically; occupants of such a dwelling may therefore receive a dose as high as 100 mSv per year in their lungs from inhalation of the entrapped radon and its disintegration products “

Anyway, you now have an official explanation to radiation and its effects (a scientist will be more help than me….I am a political historian and what the Hell do I know about the science side of this?)

We are already finding signs of radiation in the Northwest……but not to worry…it is NOT enough to cause in serious danger…..but what if the plant in Japan goes boom?  Will we, as Americans, need to start worrying then?  Or will we be kept in the dark to add cover to an industry trying to claw its way out from under the happenings in Japan and save its future government subsidies?

So after decades of terrifying young children….we have come to….”We have nothing to fear but fear itself”  (if you recall that was a statement about Japan….go figure)