If nuclear energy kills, then I’m Dead 3x Today!
April 25th, 2008
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Today I was irradiated! Yes, that’s right. More than that, I got more radiation today than the <1 mREM average person gets from living near a nuclear power plant in a year. (they actually get a lot more than, but not from the power plant, from other things.) Those who lived in the area around Three Mile Island got a dose of about 1.4 mREM when an unscheduled release was caused by a partial loss of coolant on Reactor Number 2.
But today I got three milliREM of ionizing radiation and if you believe those behind things like the “Low Level Radiation Campaign” then I should probably be dead right now. Given, it’s less than you get from living near a coal fired power plant for a while, but still. Isn’t all radiation *bad* for you? (Actually it’s not)
And to think that this irradiation was administered to me by someone I thought I could trust: My own dentist! Perhaps I should not be so surprised. This is, after all, the same man who supports poisoning us all with fluoride!
(sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch that)
Yes, that’s right, today I had a full set of dental X-rays. The average dose from a course of dental x-rays (full mouth) is supposed to be about 2 millirem. I actually got something more like three, or at least, that’s what the dosimeter said. (Yes, I’m strange enough to bring a dosimeter to the dentist office). The X-rays were actually supposed to be lower power than normal and result in a lower dose. This is because my dentist uses this cool little fluoroscope thing you put in your mouth (in a sanitary holder) and it shows the results right away on the computer. However, the numbers might be a bit skewed also because the dosimeter I used is really not accurate past .5 mREM and also, I had it kinda close to the X-ray head.
Of course, I’m also being a bit satirical here. I’m not expecting any health effects from the tiny dose of radiation I got. Mounting evidence even suggests that small doses of ionizing radiation may actually improve health and reduce the risk of cancer by triggering genetic repair mechanisms in cells.
Apologies for the picture quality. These were taken with my cell phone and the one of the dosimeter had to be sharpened and cropped because it was not a very good image.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Good Science, Misc, Not Even Wrong, Nuclear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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April 25th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
For the “mounting evidence”, here’s an interresting article that appeared in none other than the German “Spiegel” Magazine:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,519162,00.html
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April 25th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
So how are your teeth?
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April 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
You forgot to mention that the evil dentists actually use the dreaded toxin DU in dentures and other dental prosthetics to make the enamel on them bright. As well they have been poisoning us for years with mercury of all things in our fillings.
Their in cahoots with big medicine don’t you know, to make us all sick so we have to buy their ‘cures’.
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April 25th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Brian said:
No new cavities but I’ve had a couple in the past and one of my fillings kinda needs some attention because it’s not on as good as it should be.
Also I should floss more than I do.
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April 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
drbuzz0 said:
Yeah, I think that they tell that to everybody.
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April 25th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Xray is not the same as nuclear power or otherwise we would have people dying from xrays it’s not the same and you can’t get the same kind of problems. Also xrays are only dangerous when they have a lot of them I think but that’s different then a nuclear power generator or a bomb.
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April 25th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Dusty said:
How do you know this?
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April 26th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Dusty said:
Look up “Ionizing Radiation” on Google and get back to us on that one Dusty
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April 26th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Dusty said:
There is no difference between a low energy gamma ray and a high energy xray. There are isotopes with emit radiation which is basically identical to that from an X-ray machine. It all is measured the same and has the same effect. Ionizing radiation is the same damn thing whether from decay or a nuclear reaction or from an x-ray generator.
(I won’t complicate this with neutrons)
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April 26th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Dusty: I teach radiation safety.
The only difference between an X-ray and a gamma ray is where they originate. An X-ray originates in the orbiting electrons of an atom. A gamma ray originates in the nucleus of an atom. It is impossible to tell the difference between a 100 KeV (100,000 electron volts) X-ray and a 100 KeV gamma ray. They are the same thing. We give them different names for two reasons: to indicate where the ray came from; and because gamma rays can have higher energies. Medically generated X-rays rarely get above 350 KeV, and most are typically between 60-120 KeV. Gamma rays can get up to the million electron volt range.
Your statement implies that the radiation from radioactive materials can be more harmful. This is not necessarily true. It all depends on how much radiation is absorbed by the body. Counter-intuitively, the higher the energy of the ray, the more likely it will pass right through you with little energy absorbtion. The lower the ray’s energy, the more likely it is to be totally absorbed by the body.
Actually, there are six factors that influence the hazard of a radioactive material: Type of emission; energy; half-life; quantity (typically described as Curies); decay path; and its chemical/physical form. With X-rays only the energy and quantity (measured differently than radioactive materials) are necessary to determine the hazard as we already know the type of emission and the other factors aren’t applicable. So as a radiaoactive material example: one atom of a high energy, gamma emitting, long half-life radioactive atom in your body is highly unlikely to give you any radiation in your life-time. If you find this info interesting, we can keep up the dialogue – there is a lot more to say.
There are a LOT more injuries from medical X-rays – usually during therapy or interventional procedures (such as heart studies where they are injecting dyes). I’ve personally investigated a number of cases where a patient got skin burns from X-rays. Yes, you can get hurt from large doses of radiation (X- or gamma rays), but we have absolutely no evidence that low doses are hurting anyone (I will differentiate that we have evidence that low doses will cause a change, however the evidence also seems to show that the body handles these changes quite readily. In other words, change doesn’t necessarily mean harm).
I challenge you to find anyone in the USA who has gotten a large dose of radiation from a nuclear power reactor. Even living next to a nuclear power station is not going to give you any extra radiation. You could go visit a nuclear power plant, and I can assure you that you won’t get any radiation from the reactor. I couldn’t guarantee that to be true at your local hospital (please, ask me why I say this).
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April 26th, 2008 at 7:57 am
All good point, but Larry always makes good points because he’s a real professional and knows this stuff inside and out.
BTW: A modest x-ray tube can generate as much radiation as a very large amount of a gamma emitting isotope. Even that dental x-ray head would produce a lot more radiation than you’d get from any amount of radioactive material anyone is likely to encounter outside of a sterilization plant or a national laboratory. Of course, it only does so for a brief pulse. Had that little dental x-ray head been energized continuously for an hour or more it could have done some real damage! Of course, it probably would also have blown out the tube pretty fast because it’s not designed for that. But yeah, x-ray machines produce lots of radiation – lots and lots – if they’re on for any period of time. Hence they can cause injury if not done properly.
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April 27th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Dusty said:
You have not the slightest idea what you speak of and yet I would not doubt you’re very active in promoting your view, however ill informed it is. X-rays are ionizing radiation.
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