If you ask the average American, he or she might tell you the United States is in the midst of an environmental crisis. That there’s radiation coming from Japan, or something. That we need to rush out and buy iodide something-or-other pills because of the evil death particles floating into our cities and giving us cancer.
In the past week, those iodide something-or-other pills, which are actually potassium iodide pills, have been swept from pharmacies all over the country and into the hands of those average Americans who don’t pay attention to scientific facts or don’t pay the slightest attention to any of the news sources telling them that the radiation coming from Japan’s damaged nuclear reactors will not harm Americans.
On March 11, one of the biggest earthquakes in the history of human civilization hit Japan, triggering a destructive tsunami that wiped out entire communities.
Part of the damage was to Fukushima’s six nuclear reactors. A hydrogen explosion at the power plant caused damage to several reactors, which in turn emitted dangerous radioactive elements into the air. The population closest to the plant was evacuated, decontaminated and given potassium iodide to dampen the effects of the radioactive isotope iodine-131. Scientists are now finding radioactive contamination in foods, namely large leafy plants that can absorb radiation via their roots and contaminated water.
And yet, for the week following the disaster at the nuclear plant in Japan, many Americans acted as if the nuclear disaster was here. Advertisers capitalized on American fear by ramping up advertisements for potassium iodide.
Early news reported we’d be able to detect radiation “within the week,” and that people should prepare for the worst.
In layman’s terms, people freaked out. They freaked out because the media, in the early days of the nuclear disaster, once again sensationalized a difficult concept. They freaked out because they were too lazy to educate themselves. They freaked out because, once again, Americans like to make everything about themselves.
You’re probably asking, what is radiation, anyway, and why is it so dangerous? It’s not something you can see, smell, taste or hold. In the simplest terms, radiation is the energy given off as an atom changes from an unstable to a stable state, in a process called decaying. There are all different kinds of radiation, and believe or not, you’re surrounded by it, and not all of it will kill you.
“We live in a sea of radiation,” said Andre Bouville, recently retired head of the Radiation Dosimetry Unit at the National Cancer Institute, in an interview with NPR. “There is natural radiation due to uranium and thorium in the ground or from cosmic rays coming from the sky.”
There’s also radiation coming from your organs, microwaves, radios, TVs and the sun, among other things.
However, there is some radiation that can be highly dangerous. This is called ionizing radiation, and it’s dangerous because it contains enough energy to actually break chemical bonds in our cells. There are several types, each causing varying levels of damage. The third and most dangerous type, gamma radiation, can travel huge distances at incredible speeds and can cause external and internal damage to the body. A bad exposure to gamma radiation can kill you within hours.
The worrisome radioactive elements coming out of Japan’s nuclear reactors are iodine-131 and cesium-127. Iodine-131 can build up in the thyroid gland, where iodine concentrates naturally, leading to thyroid cancer. The iodide pills that people are taking can stop iodine absorption temporarily.
Cesium-127, on the other hand, is incredibly dangerous for many reasons. One is that it emits gamma radiation, which can cause huge damage to cells. If it seeps into soil or water, cesium-127 can last for decades.
The people immediately surrounding the nuclear plant in Japan and the people depending on the food and water in those areas are at a high risk of dangerous levels of radiation exposure, but those of us on the West Coast of the United States certainly aren’t.
In the reports following the radioactive emissions, every news source has confirmed the U.S. will not be harmed. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, even though radiation has been detected in places like San Francisco, Seattle and Anaheim, Calif., it’s been detected in such low quantities that there is no chance of harm.
Radiation can travel, but it travels on dust particles. It disperses and becomes less concentrated. In fact, the EPA says the natural radiation we’re exposed to every day is 100,000 times greater than anything that is swept over the Pacific Ocean from Japan.
What I find most disturbing about this whole debacle is that while half a country is crippled — it people left without homes and facing a nuclear meltdown, with the challenge of rebuilding entire communities looming over the horizon — Americans still find a way to make it all about themselves. And many people could have been relived by simply turning on the news or typing “radiation” into Google, to find out more.
So America, you can relax. I promise you will get through this unthinkable crisis.
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Wendel: Radioactivity not a threat to America
Daily Emerald
March 27, 2011
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