Sometimes bad things happen to good people for no apparent reason. This is particularly true when it come to illness. Sometimes people get sick and sometimes people die without ever knowing why or how they became ill. This can be difficult to accept because we believe we deserve answers and we want to find the cause of our suffering. We want to have someone or some thing to blame for our illness – that’s human nature.
Over the years anti-nuclear activists have taken advantage of this aspect of human nature to spread fear about nuclear energy. I was listening to a radio show the other day and a gentleman called in to the show who was apparently the victim of this kind of misinformation.
[you’ll have to listen to the clip to hear what he said]
This gentleman firmly believes that radiation from a nuclear plant caused his father’s death, and somehow influenced the health of his entire school class. He also claimed there are thousands of other people similarly affected. We all have friends and family members who have developed illnesses for no apparent reason, so it is easy to empathize with this gentleman.
I really do feel for him and his family, but the facts tell the opposite story: working in a nuclear plant is safer than just about any other profession, safer even than working in a retail store. Today, there are over 60,000 people working for nuclear utilities around the USA, and many thousands more at national laboratories and in related industries, plus hundreds of thousands who have worked there in the past. To suggest there is some grand conspiracy to cover up an epidemic of health effects is not only unrealistic, it is pure fantasy. There is no evidence to suggest that occupational radiation exposure at commercial nuclear plants has caused any ill health affects to workers or to the public.
In fact, many progressive scientists are beginning to consider the possibility that that low levels of radiation may have beneficial health effects because radiation may stimulate cellular repair mechanisms that protect against disease. This is called the “hormesis theory”. Here are some links to information about the hormesis theory. By the way, the hormesis theory does not only apply to radiation, it is a widely acknowledged affect that is the basis for homeopathic medicine.
Radiation Hormesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis
Introduction to Radiation Hormesis http://www.angelfire.com/mo/radioadaptive/inthorm.html
#1 by Henry - October 26th, 2009 at 10:38
Hormesis theory has nothing to do with homeopathy.
Hormesis theory is science.
Homeopathy is woo-woo. It is in the same category as witchcraft, unicorns and fairies.
#2 by DocForesight - October 28th, 2009 at 14:38
John,
Thanks for this, and your other, excellent and informative posts. On the topic of homeopathic medicine, which I am in favor of, along with nutritional support and supplementation (only makes sense, since the body needs food to restore or maintain healthy functioning – and medicines are not food), we have a skeptic who takes the gloves off over at DepletedCranium.com.
Dr. Buzzo appears to consider homeopathy as along the lines of reading tea leaves and chanting incantations to scare away evil spirits. Hmm.
He is otherwise an intelligent person, but I think he’s off base on homeopathy and the physiology involved. If you feel inclined, give it a look.
#3 by John - November 1st, 2009 at 09:59
I plead bias here because I grew up around homeopathic medicine. My grandfather, Bernard Baute, was a country doctor from Lebanon, Kentucky and studied medicine at the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia (formerly called the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania, and now MCP Hahnemann University). The school was named in honor of Samuel Hahnemann, a pioneer of homeopathic medicine.
My grandfather was a family practice physician and a surgeon, and he believed homeopathy had its place when combined with traditional modern medicine. For many years he was the only physician in the county and made house calls with his horse and buggy. He delivered virtually all of the residents of Cook County, Kentucky who are today over the age of about 50 today.
He once told my mother that it was a step backwards when he began making house calls in his car because he could sleep in his buggy while the horse took him home.
#4 by Timray - November 1st, 2009 at 22:55
i worked for Bechtel on several nuclear generating stations and am quite familiar with all aspects of it….i would live next door to any of them. the anti-nuclear activists are some of the most ill informed humans i have ever met. i helped Greenpeace make repairs to their ship the Rainbow Warrior and knew many of them….illiterati, castarati, decerebrati and machanati are a few of the terms i invented having closely known them to describe them….and they are all that. my concern was whales and seals….basically, idiots