Radiation is good for you

  Nuclear plant workers get fewer cancers than the rest of us: true

LET’S STOP PANICKING about radiation. This message is aimed at my friend Ah-Fat who told me to shut the windows despite the warmth of the morning.

“I calculate that the radioactive death cloud from the Fukushima nuclear plant will arrive here by noon,” he explained. (Clearly he had been reading the international press.)

I doubted that shutting the windows would provide enough protection, but I’m no expert, so I did as he told me.
*
Around 11.50 pm, he leapt to his feet and pointed through the glass. “There it is, right on schedule,” he said.

I followed the line of his finger, and said: “That’s not a radioactive emission from Japan. That’s just a cloud.”

 
*
None of this surprised me. The main thing that happens after a disaster is that panic arises among people who enjoy that sort of thing.

An hour later, Ah-Fat claimed he could SMELL radiation. I pointed out that

1.) Radiation doesn’t have a smell, and,

2.) He lives above a hairdresser’s, a category of shop which always smell disgusting, because they use so many chemicals that the fumes combine into a lethal cloud way worse than Fukushima and closer to Bhopal.
*
Discussing this later at the bar, I was curious to learn from a self-described scientist that some boffins now think radiation is good for you.

I retorted: “The residents of Hiroshima might disagree.”

But then I remembered that I myself owned a historical document showing radiation having a positive effect: an April 1963 edition of The Amazing Spiderman.

*
The scientist clarified himself: LOW level radiation has been shown to be good for you in certain situations.

With his iPhone, he Googled several surveys which showed that radiologists, nuclear plant staff and airport security staff get fewer cancers than people in jobs with no exposure to radiation. It’s amazing but true.

(Click here if you want the read one of them.)
*
Most surprising was a recent study in Florida in which mice suffering from Alzheimer’s disease were given two hours of “talk time” on mobile phones (which emit low levels of radiation) every day for seven months. “Memory problems of the older Alzheimer’s mice disappeared,” researchers at the University of South Florida said.

Irritatingly, the report failed to answer the obvious questions.

1) How did they locate mice with Alzheimer’s disease in the first place? Did they hang out at mice apartments to see which ones remembered their door entry codes?

2) What did the mice talk about for two hours a day?

3) How did they know which mice had memory problems? Did they eavesdrop on their conversations?

MOUSE ONE: “Yay, my brain works perfectly again.”

MOUSE TWO: “Is that right?”

MOUSE ONE: “Is what right?”
*
The next day was so hot that Ah-Fat reluctantly opened the windows, even though the Fukushima radioactive death cloud was running late.

I told him not to worry. “There are lots of documents which indicate that low-level radiation has positive effects,” I said, handing him a reading list:

• Godzilla,
• Spider-Man,
• the Fantastic Four,
• the Silver Surfer,
• the Incredible Hulk,
• the Daleks
• etc.

You can’t deny evidence like that.
*
 
(Hulk origin pic)
*
I could have added that radioactivity has been scientifically proven to benefit mouse-sized brains, but I stopped myself.

For several of my dear friends, that would have been a little too close to the truth.

Technorati Tags: radiation is good for you,hulk,spider-man,spiderman,radiation,benefits,cancer

Comments

[grandpa]

As you should know by now , I am no longer a teenager, but everyone here is wondering where I get my energy from , since I run, walk and work faster that a teenager.
I did not know until today
Obviously, it comes from going through airport detectors, 50 times a day.

Thanks for the good news

[Jason]

Nothing a little (lots?) salt can't fix. Brain-dead, knuckle-dragging morons! Asia's World City indeed. Time to bury that title.

[Lift Lurker]

There is no escape.

If you stay indoor to hide from radiation outside, you expose yourself to radon radiation which come from the ground and stay inside your house unless you remove your roof, door, and window glasses. Highest concentration can be found in underground nuclear bunkers (define irony).

Houses should carry warning sign: The Surgeon General has determine that livinng in this house causes lung cancer.

The only way to survive is one day we all evolve into Blattella Sapiens.

[Nury]

I think Grandpa is a good example. He has worked in airports for many years, but he is an adult with the energy and health of a young person.

Jason, I agree that the salt-panic in Hong Kong was pretty embarrassingly stupid, but the same thing happened in quite a few other countries, so perhaps we are not that much worse than other people.
I know my business friends have a theory that capitalism is built on stupidity -- x is stupid enough to buy product y which is not worth what x pays for it. The result is profit.

Lift Lurker, I didn't know that the highest concentration of ground radiation is found in nuclear bunkers -- wow, that really is proof that existence is governed by the Great Sense of Irony in the Sky!

[Nury]

LL: What is blatella sapiens?

[Lift Lurker]

Blatella = scientific name of cockroach.

Homo sapiens, blatella sapiens, get it? :-)

[Paul]

I've seen first hand what happens to a mouse when exposed to too much radiation in Florida...

Its head swells.

It begins to talk in a high pitched voice.

It decides to live in a maze-like park built around a central castle.

It mysteriously reproduces into exact duplicates which then relocate to different parts of the world.

;-)

[Angela]

If exposure to radiation gives one super human energy, I need to be exposed. So I will have enough energy to do all my work, and still have time to comment on this site.

Does radiation from microwave oven counts? that's all I've been doing lately, eating microwaved meals.

Scientists* discovered that the biggest danger of using mobile phone is not exposure to radiation, but being distracted and falling into open manholes, or walking into on-coming car or train, or driving your car over the bridge. Human stupidity kills faster than any radiation exposure. And we don't need experts to tell us that.

*ok, I am the scientist :-)

[Angela]

Paul, it also develops a queer fashion preference for wearing shorts with no shirt, and white gloves.

And people pay money to come and see this mutant mouse and take pictures with it.

[Bianca Schlimm]

Mouse not equals mouse. amazing experiment though. was the mouse glued to an i-phone? taped? chained? maybe the level of fear made her brain work better....
my "new bible" tells me that thou shalt not experiment with animals what thou would not experiment with human beings.

I saw two type of mouses in a school. one was small and greyish and fearfully staying in the corner. the other was big, it was Mongolian Mouse. Full of interest it walked all over and came to my hand and was a nice mouse to get to know. It had been given a name by the students.

the other was nameless and was given to a FROG.
a big nasty frog who took ten minutes to completely swallow that mouse, like a snake. they said there are ten type of frogs who eat animals on this earth.

very intelligent poeple could now think that the "future belongs" to the Mongolians...

Angla, sorry you have to work so much!

[grandpa]

@Bianca
The one , trembling in its corner was a mouse.
The one going to your hand , unafraid of the " giant" in front of her ,was a rat( whatever the name they gave you).
Rats are smarter than us.
Not only they resist anything , poison, traps, radioactivity, they cannot be wiped out of this planet.
As a matter of fact,they might already run the planet through telepathy;
This would explain why so called "democracies are bombing civilians , in order to save them from being bombed by their own bombs.":

"as you can see on the tag you found after the explosion , our bombs have a guarantee that yours do not have.
In case of landing at the wrong address, please send a written complaint to our customer service ,indicated by the code which you should read in the top right hand corner of the sample we just sent you."
This would explain also, why a lot of people behave like rats.....

[grandpa]

oops

@ Bianca
Are you the Bianca from "Bernard and Bianca?

[rafanjr]

...imagine growing up without x-men, teenage mutant ninja turtles, spiderman, an all sorts... it would be a less funtastic childhood... but then again, to each his own generation...

...oh and Angela... the mutant mouse also owns a dog...

[grandpa]

"Radiation is good for you"

I am sorry for the guy or girl who has never been hit by a radiant smile

[Karuna aka Kaye Moreno]

>> do all my work, and still have time to comment on this site

@Angela.... when you were working for the earlier employer you had all the time to post comments. Now that you are working for yourself, you do not seem to have the time !!
:-P

[Angela]

Karuna, my boss is a slave driver. She gives me so much work. But then she lets me take a nap after lunch, undisturbed, if I should so request.

Whoever says that being self-employed means you will have more time and freedom for other, non-career pursuits, has obviously never met my boss ;-)

[Lift Lurker]

since I run, walk and work faster that a teenager.

???

Grandpa - I see teenagers on couch. I do not see teenagers running walking or working very fast. You must be older than we thought.

I learn something next to useful every day from this site.

First I learn that laughter is best medicine (and genuine laughter is best of all, not the demonic laughter - I waste so many years in ignorance because they never say it clearly, they just say "laughter is the best medicine" so i thought any kind of laughter)

Then I learn that radiation is good so I replace my non-radiation LCD monitor back to my green CRT monitor.

[Bianca Schlimm]

Oops... grandpa: very funny!

so what do you suggest to get rid of someone like gaddafi?
any ghandi-type superb ideas?

[TS]

I'm partial to electromagnetic radiation in wavelengths from 390 to 750 nm.

Helps me from bumping into stuff.

[kim]

My dear husband the Great Physics Professor got totally stuck when i read out the bit about giving mice two hours mobile talk time. He couldn't get past the idea that the mice had to talk to each other. Honestly, I do wonder about him sometimes. Perhaps it's
alzheimers and I should experiment with giving him a couple of hours mobile talk time per day?

[grandpa]

@Bianca
I cannot talk about that:
I might explode, which would result in worse damage to the planet than what happened lately

[Chamin]

@TS: Good one!

[Deepak]

Nury, you are truly radiating now! Your funny bone is radiating at its peak. I hope our Japanese friends can read this. Lets spread cheer till another dooms dayer comes along.

[Samu Thangadurai]

Nury,

I liked your article;

I would suggest being health conscious is not concern but too much panicking ends up in embracement.

I have friend who recently delivered a baby, she is so conscious she doesn’t allow sunlight to hit baby as she feels that will spoil its skin but I read in childhood school text book we get vitamin D from sunlight more over sunlight is not so sharp in winter, I have seen kids who are much healthy who grew in village.

If little radioactivity is good lets have it :).. more over i like spider Man :P he he he