Dr. Steve Novella is a great skeptic and promoter of science based medicine.  He writes for the appropriately named blog Science Based Medicine.   Dr. Novella and other pro-science doctors have been very critical of Dr. Oz, the cardiologist turned media personality who is a big promoter of alternative medicine.

Surprisingly he was invited to be on Dr. Oz’s show.   I had hoped that this would be a great opportunity to bring some skeptical and science to a show that badly needs it.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be almost painful to watch.

Well, it seems that the good doctor tried pretty hard to make a point and, in the process hopefully he did get through to a few.   However, it’s pretty hard to win a debate when the other side of it is also the moderator and when you have a hostile audience.   Dr. Novella pretty much is standing along against at least three other “experts” who are looking to promote alternative medicine.

Dr. Oz manages to make a number of statements that really get under my skin.  For one thing there’s the whole claim that acupuncture is rejected because it does not fit into our “western” mindset.   NO!   It doesn’t work.  There’s no “Western” science, but only science.   The scientific method is culturally independent and used everywhere.  In China, they use science and have been doing pretty damn well with it.   Best of all, Eastern, Western Northern and Southern doctors can all agree on what works and does not because the laws of logic and science are universal.

Then the “arrow” versus “ballistic missile”  approach.  God this guy really annoys me!   Science based medicine is not nearly as brute-force based as it is made out to be and there’s not only one type of therapy for each given condition.   The only thing that separates medicine from alternative medicine is that medicine works.

Finally “just let the patient decide what works for them.”   People are VERY BAD at judging the effectiveness of medicine on an individual basis.  That’s why we have placebo-controlled, large-scale clinical studies.  Anecdotes are worthless and the fact that a particular therapy seems like it worked for you is not an objective fact that can be relied on.   Most people don’t understand this and if they did they might be less apt to believe their own intuition when there’s good established data to look at.

We know the approximate dosage that workers at Fukushima have been exposed to is not extremely high.  All but 28 workers have been exposed to less than 100 mSv, while only two workers have been exposed to levels as high as 170 mSv.  Thus far, nobody has been exposed to more than 250 mSv.

This is really not much radiation at all.  It’s more than the average person is exposed to and is more than nuclear plant workers are normally exposed to under normal operating conditions.   Still, 100 mSv is only about 10% of the minimum dose required to cause even minor, temporary radiation sickness.

Despite hazardous conditions, there have been no life-threatening injuries at the Fukushima plant since the quake and tsunami hit on March 11.  The worst case that workers might face is a slightly elevated risk of cancer in the years to come, although even that is not a certainty, and as it stands, even those exposed to the highest doses would have only a tiny increase in total risk.

So why on earth would anyone make a fuss about a worker being exposed to 17.55 mSv?   That level may be bellow the (extremely conservative) standards for exposure under normal operations, but it’s not high at all.  It’s not high enough to cause any detectable health problems.   It’s about the same exposure someone might get from a few CT scan examinations.

The reason everyone is all bothered is that the person in question had two X chromosomes.

Via Fox Business:

TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) said Wednesday that one of its female employees at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was exposed to radiation exceeding three times the legal limit of 5 millisieverts in a three-month period, Kyodo News reported.

The woman, who is in her 50s, has no health problems, but the government’s nuclear safety agency said that two more female workers may also have been exposed to radiation in excess of the limit. The agency called on the utility to investigate the reason and take measures to prevent a recurrence.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference the situation was “extremely deplorable,” but added that all female employees had left the radiation-leaking plant on March 23.

According to the plant operator and the agency, a total of 19 female Tokyo Electric employees were working at the six-reactor complex following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, and one of them was exposed to a total of 17.55 millisieverts of radiation.

The woman was found to have suffered more internal than external radiation exposure, with the internal exposure reaching 13.6 millisieverts.

Another agency official said that TEPCO needs to explain why the worker suffered so much internal exposure.

TEPCO and the agency said that the woman had been refueling fire trucks and working inside a building on site. She had been wearing a mask, but may have inhaled radioactive material when putting it on or taking it off.

An TEPCO official acknowledged during a press conference that its radiation-dose management should have been more stringent.

Under Japanese law, radiation workers are not permitted to be exposed to more than 100 millisieverts over five years, or more than 50 millisieverts in one year.

For female workers, the limit is 5 millisieverts in a three-month period, considering they may become pregnant. For the general public, the limit is 1 millisievert per year, excluding exposure from medical procedures.

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I was raised in a Roman Catholic family.  I went to church and Sunday school and had a first communion and confirmation and all that kind of thing.  I don’t subscribe to religion, and some may be surprised to learn that I never actually had a bad experience with the Catholic Church.  As a kid, the priests at my local parish were approachable, nice men who were always there to offer comfort to a family that suffered a loss or other problem.  There was never any allegation of child abuse at any church I ever went to.  The myths I learned in Sunday school (and I regard them as myths) tended to focus on admirable qualities and lessons nobody could take issue with: be honest, don’t steal and that kind of thing.  I was never taught to hate gays or anything like that.

Still, I regard all that I was taught about god and the Bible as being mythology.

But I don’t have any grudge or ax to grind with the Catholic Church.

I certainly don’t delight in the sex abuse scandal that has plagued the church in recent years.  It’s one of the most despicable and tragic things to ever happen to the Church (and this is considering that some pretty damn despicable and tragic things have happened in the past 2000 years.)  There’s been a lot of talk about why it has happened to such an extent, whether it is because priests are made to be celibate or because of a culture that draws sexually dysfunctional men into the priesthood.

I don’t know and I don’t really care.  Regardless of the reason, the Church should have immediately acted every time a priest was found to be committing abuse.  They generally did not.  It was not just once or twice either, but a massive pattern.  It’s been exposed in the United States, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Australia and elsewhere.  Almost anywhere there is a sizable catholic population, it has happened.

One thing I find really amazing is how many have defended the Catholic Church.   The fact that the Church committed these acts on such a large basis does not in and of itself undermine the basic beliefs of Catholicism (although I think those are BS anyway.)   It certainly does not make every catholic a bad person or a pedophile and it does not change the fact that there are many priests who would never commit such an act.

Still, while the past can’t be undone it should not be excused, downplayed or diminished.   The actions of the church were shameful and if people feel ashamed for what their church has done, then good.  There’s a place for shame in the world (as the Catholic Church does often remind us) and if you let countless children be sexually molested, that’s a pretty damn good place for shame.

But none of the defenders of the actions of the Catholic Church who I’ve seen can hold a candle to this sicko.   A Belgian Bishop had admitted to abusing children, including two of his nephews, one of whom was no older than five when it started.  One would think that after admitting something so disgraceful that someone would want to retreat from public life.   In this case, however, the Bishop seems to think what he did was no big deal, and he went on television to let the world know.

Yeah, that’s right.   The guy thinks it was a “game” and somehow normal in a family.  He thinks it’s okay because he didn’t actually have intercourse with his nephews.  He just got in bed with them and fondled their genitals on numerous occasions over several years.  Also, he seems to think that they were totally fine with it since he didn’t need to explicitly threaten them.

What the hell is with people like this?

And also, to the pope: If there was ever anyone who should be defrocked, I’m pretty sure this is the guy!

I’ve seen some bad reporting in my day – some downright horrible reporting.   However, this might just take the cake.   It’s made even worse by the fact that this shameful article was in the New York Times, a once respectable mainstream news source.

It is so blatantly anti-nuclear and anti-corporate that it resorts to the most odious of lies in a very thinly veiled attempt to paint the entire nuclear industry as being a horribly socially irresponsible monster.   The reporter obviously an ax to grind, but reports this as news, not opinion.

I think TEPCO should sue them for slander, but that probably would do more harm than good.

Japanese Workers Braved Radiation for a Temp Job

Mr. Ishizawa, who was finally allowed to leave, is not a nuclear specialist; he is not even an employee of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the crippled plant. He is one of thousands of untrained, itinerant, temporary laborers who handle the bulk of the dangerous work at nuclear power plants here and in other countries, lured by the higher wages offered for working with radiation.

They do not do “most of the dangerous work.” They do most of the work period. A nuclear plant is like just about any other industrial site. There are some jobs that require a great deal of skill and/or education, but there are a lot of unskilled jobs that range from sweeping floors to moving boxes to tightening bolts.

If you don’t believe me, go to any construction site.   You will see some skilled, experienced and educated individuals, such as the foreman, inspectors and welders.   However, you’ll also see a lot of laborers whose primary jobs include digging, cleaning up, moving around lumber, installing drywall and so on.

Yes, people are drawn to the nuclear industry because it pays highly. It’s not simply because they are “working with radiation.” The industry tends to offer good wages and benefits and working conditions that are at least as good as any industry and often much better.

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Since Japan is a country where camera cell phones, camcorders and digital cameras are very common, there has been a lot of footage of the destruction caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami shown on the news and on internet sites.  I saw no reason to post about this, since that really is not the focus of this site.

However, I recently came across this video that was only recently posted on Youtube.  It shows the Tsunami that made landfall about half an hour after the quake.   It is one of the most incredible and sobering videos I’ve seen and captures the tsunami from shortly after the initial arrival of the surge until it has made nearly full landfall, a period of more than five minutes. Note that even as the video begins to roll, the rush of water has already flooded a low lying area and begun to lift cars out of a parking lot.

The level of destruction is almost unimaginable.   While this video only shows one locality, this powerful rush of the sea occurred for much of the northern Japanese coastline.    The destruction extended some distance inland, but even structures that were safe from the tsunami on high ground were subject to the extreme shaking of the quake that caused it.

At 2:55, the cameraman notices a person in the water. There may be others who are not visible or were in their vehicles.

It is amazing that the nuclear power plants subject to this level of destruction have held together as well as they have.

As the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plants has begun to stabilize, a new threat to the economic recovery of Japan and the livelihood of Japanese farmers and exporters has begun to rear its ugly head. Reports are now surfacing of food testing positive for radioisotopes traced to the core venting at Fukushima.

Via CNN International:

Japan’s radioactive food found in major local producer
The disclosure Saturday by Japanese authorities that milk and spinach have shown higher-than-normal levels of radiation contamination has raised concerns about food safety and supplies in one of Japan’s most heavily populated regions.

Tainted milk was found 30 kilometers (18 1/2 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and spinach was collected as far as 100 kilometers (65 miles) to the south, almost halfway to Tokyo. The plant was badly damaged after a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the coast on March 11.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stressed to reporters Saturday afternoon that the levels were not extremely high: A person who consumed these products continuously for a year, he said, would take in the same amount of radiation as that of a single CT scan.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that equates to 7 millisieverts, more than double the 3 millisieverts that a person in an industrialized country is typically exposed to in a year.

Health effects would become more evident, he said, if such products were taken in daily for a lifetime. Edano said high radiation levels were not systemic for all spinach and milk tested, and that more data would be collected and analyzed under the Japanese health ministry’s watch to help determine what steps to take next.

The Fukushima prefecture, or province, is just to the northeast of Tokyo. According to the prefecture’s website, Fukushima plays an important role in supplying food, not only to Tokyo, but also to the nation. The prefecture is Japan’s fourth-largest farmland area and ranks among the top producer of fruits, vegetables, rice, tobacco and raw silk. The favorable climate lends itself to an active agricultural industry that includes livestock farming.

The website also states that the prefecture’s 159 kilometer-long coastline is home to a thriving fishing and seafood processing industry, and the area’s haul of fish is among Japan’s largest.

Neighboring Ibaraki prefecture supplies Tokyo with a significant amount of fruits and vegetables. Ibaraki is the largest producer of Andes melons in Japan, according to the prefecture’s website, as well as the country’s third-largest producer of pork.

Most information available is fairly vague about both the type of radioisotope found in foods and the total amount. That said, current measurements may not be entirely reliable, since levels tend to vary quite widely and a small number of samples may not provide a reliable reflection of the actual levels in the overall food supply.

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There’s no doubt that the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear plant is serious, although efforts to stabilize the situation are continuing to progress. As time goes on, the level of decay heat produced by the reactor cores diminishes and active cooling becomes less critical. At the same time, short-lived radioisotopes continue to decay away, reducing the severity of potential core discharges. Local radiation continues to spike due to venting of the cores and problems with keeping water in the spent fuel pools.

Still, the worst case scenario for the plant would be limited to a relatively localized event. Even if all of the reactors at the plant experienced a complete failure of all levels of containment and all spent fuels experienced fires, there would still be zero danger of acute radiation sickness to anyone who was not in the immediate area of the plant.

For those who live miles away, the worst danger would be the possibility of exposure to iodine-131. Although levels would not be enough to cause any acute symptoms, it can increase the probability of developing thyroid cancer. This danger too is reduced with time. With a half-life of about eight days, iodine 131 does not persist in the enviornment. As of this posting we are already coming up on one half-life since the reactor shutdown. In about two weeks the levels of iodine-131 in the reactor cores will be less than 15% what they were when the reactors shut down. Most of the iodine-131 has already decayed away from the spent fuel in storage.

Even in the worst case, where all material is discharged, there is zero danger of any dangerous radiation levels to areas beyond Northern Japan. The United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere simply cannot be effected to any substantial level by any breach at any Japanese reactor, or even if every singe Japanese reactor simultaneously experienced a complete meltdown and core breach. It’s impossible.

Despite these undeniable facts, there remains a persistent myth, largely encouraged by the media and politicians, that a nuclear accident can constitute a truly global crisis. Nuclear accidents are portrayed as being some kind of doomsday event which can undermine human civilization and leave whole regions of the earth uninhabitable, causing the deaths of millions or billions and endangering every man, woman and child in every location on earth.

This ridiculous belief has lead to panic and madness gripping the world, with individuals from China to the United States responding to reports of radiation with a kind of fear normally reserved for the demons and curses of religion.

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As it is too difficult for me to personally provide updates on the situation in Japan, the following links can provide good up to date, information without sensationalize or uninformed speculation.

TEPCO Press Room – Frequently updated English language press releases from the plant’s operators on the latest state of the reactors.

MIT Nuclear Information Service – Blog-style posts providing expert analysis and information written in layperson’s terminology with good explanations.   Highly recommended.   Rational and direct.

International Atomic Energy Agency – Contains regular press releases on confirmed information relating to the Fukushima reactors. Also provides information on confirmed injuries relating to the nuclear plant. At this time there are no confirmed cases of acute radiation poisoning, though workers have been injured in the explosions at the plant.

Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (English Language Site) – Frequent updates on status of reactors. This site provides some of the best primary information as soon as it is avaliable on both the reactor conditions and efforts underway to address problems. This is the primary source of information used to provide the concise “Status Updates” updates, which are hosted by HPS.
(note that this is not a “forum” in the sense of an internet discussion board)

Health Physics Society – In addition to having updates on the Fukushima, HPS is by far the best site to go to for reference information on the health effects of ionizing radiation, the measurement of radiation, safety issues and other important background info. HPS provides exceptionally well-written and understandable references for media and laypersons.

Fukushima Status Updates – Provided by the Health Physics Society and the Japan Atomic Information Forum, this PDF document is updated whenever new information on the status of the reactors become available. As of this writing, three reactors are severely damaged but stable. All reactors at the nearby Fukushima-2 plant are safe and relatively undamaged. This document offers the best concise rundown of status.

Due to the exceptionally poor reporting and sensationalize in the mainstream press, readers are warned to take press reports, even those from otherwise reputable newspapers with a grain of salt. Likewise, statements by politicians and commentators should not be viewed as necessarily being reliable.

While the world was obsessing over the problems with cooling the cores at severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there are a few things that seem to have gone all but unreported.

This is a terrible situation that goes far beyond the nuclear plant issues.

• As of this posting, at least 2,800 Japanese are confirmed dead. The actual number of dead is unknown.   Many thousands more are missing and feared dead.  Estimates of the actual dead range from ten thousand to more than twenty thousand.  In some areas, half the population is missing and feared dead.
• The number of seriously injured is unknown, but believed to be enormous.   Japanese hospitals are flooded and many hospitals have sustained serious damage and are left with limited or no water or electricity.
• Infrastructure has been destroyed.   Numerous sewer and water systems in Northern Japan are so damaged that major sections will need to be completely rebuilt.   Telecommunications links are severed.  The electrical grid has been severely damaged with transformers, power stations and transmission lines destroyed.   Trains are unable to run because of destroyed track and highways are damaged, making it difficult to transport victims to safety and get supplies to the damaged areas.   Even outside the area directly effected by the quake, power shortages may cause rolling blackouts and energy rationing.
• The number of Japanese left homeless has been reported in he millions. Some of those displaced will likely be able to return to homes that are severely damaged, but recoverable.   However, the total number who have completely lost their homes and all their property is unknown and may be hundreds of thousands or more.
• Hundreds of thousands of Japanese businesses have been destroyed.   Even large businesses like auto makers have seen extensive damage. Millions of workers may be out of a job.
• Reconstruction estimates are now up to 180 billion US dollars and may increase.   The scope of this event is so large that it is almost impossible to fix a single cost to it, as it is so large it exceeded the limits of conventional market economics and could undermine the monetary system of Japan.   Insurance companies and financial institutions are in danger of being wiped out along with retirement funds and other savings.
• Though it has hardly been reported in the media, dam failures have destroyed thousands of structures.
• The crisis has exceeded the ability of japan to provide temporary housing, food and other supplies.   Many are without food or water.
• Refineries are severely damaged, some resulted in huge fires and discharges of oil.
• With sewer and water systems destroyed, thousands of bodies washing in from the sea and huge areas flooded, Japan faces a sanitary and ecological disaster that may dwarf Hurricane Katrina.   The tsunami that followed the quake inundated sewage treatment plants, chemical storage facilities, gas stations and industrial areas.   The level of chemical and biological contamination remains unknown.  Meanwhile, fires are dumping huge plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.

The New York Times has a very sobering gallery of before and after satellite images of the areas hit by the quake and tsunami.

Meanwhile the media is having a field day with the nuclear reactors.   Though the plant was damaged heavily, this is the least of Japan’s problems.

I fear that the continued obsession with the nuclear reactor situation may lead to precious resources and attention being diverted from those who need it most.

A little bit off topic, but here’s a great example of why things are not always quite what they seem on television.    By picking the right sequence of shots and editing it together cleverly, you can make something seem much different than it is.

The following infamous outtakes are from a commercial for Paul Masson wines staring Orson Welles.   While Welles may have been one of the best actors and directors of our time, by the end of his life he was a raging alcoholic.   In the takes bellow he was quite obviously tanked.   It was filmed in the late 1970’s.

And here’s the final product.   Welles came back to the studio (presumably a bit more sober) to do the voice-over for the final commercial. Yet the visual portion of the ad is entirely from the original takes.  No new video was taken.

A lot of classic editing tricks can be seen here. Notice that while the voice of Welles and background music and sounds imply a continuous scene, the actual footage of Welles never lasts more than a few seconds before cutting away. Other scenes of the party and the wine fill the time while Welles actual appearance on camera is very brief. Still, it’s amazing they were able to salvage anything from the takes with a drunken Orson Welles.