Great article. Working in the field of Denial Of Shipment (of radioactive materials), I recall giving a presentation on the topic about 10-15 years ago. At the time I proposed the term 'trefoilbia' as an irrational fear of the trefoil symbol. Eyes rolled, attendees groaned, and it didn't exactly go viral, but the truth is there is such a phobia, which you articulate so well.
LNT, linear no-threshold, is something to write about, too. As I understand it, some study or other said if a lot of radiation does harm and more radiation does more harm, then that is a linear relationship. Extend the line backwards and ANY radiation is harmful, and the effect is cumulative.
Not true, but most people think it is, hence fear.
Great article! Something I wonder if you'd be able to cover is if this radiophobia has made its way into the insurance industry. I saw an interview by democratic primary hopeful Robert Kennedy jr and he expressed anti-nuclear sentiments. The primary reason he stated was that apparently insurance companies just won't offer coverage for nuclear power plants. This didn't really smell right to me, as he also had misconceptions in other areas you've also written about, but do you know what he may have been referring to?
Nice article. Thank you. My concern is the use of cell phones. Pretty much everyone I know has theirs always in their hand or to their ear, and always near them when they sleep. From a radiation standpoint this may pose no risk. Using my gut-feeling scientific method 😀, I try to use my phone in a way that lessens any exposure - not next to me when I sleep, use speaker phone when talking, use my hardwired laptop to check email when I can etc....
My concerns about cell phone radiation may be unfounded. However, these adjustments in my use of this technology are hardly disruptive to me so I figure in the lack of 100% certainty, it doesn’t hurt anything.
One last point. I worked in oncology sales a few years back and I always asked the Radiation Oncologists (14 of them) that I know what they think and do they see any increase in head and neck cancer due to cell phone use. I forget the ratio but it was about half that said they didn’t feel it was an issue and the other half said they noticed an increase in small tumors in the skulls behind the ears - usually on the side the patient holds the phone (the good news about these tumors is that they are easily removable and usually not the type that metastasize) I realize this is not a clinical study and with an n-value of 14 this data is probably meaningless. However, it just reinforced that my cautious approach is a reasonable one.
Thank you again for this article. It definitely gave me something to think about!
Great article. Working in the field of Denial Of Shipment (of radioactive materials), I recall giving a presentation on the topic about 10-15 years ago. At the time I proposed the term 'trefoilbia' as an irrational fear of the trefoil symbol. Eyes rolled, attendees groaned, and it didn't exactly go viral, but the truth is there is such a phobia, which you articulate so well.
Good stuff.
LNT, linear no-threshold, is something to write about, too. As I understand it, some study or other said if a lot of radiation does harm and more radiation does more harm, then that is a linear relationship. Extend the line backwards and ANY radiation is harmful, and the effect is cumulative.
Not true, but most people think it is, hence fear.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2663584/
Excellent summary. For more technical details, see https://jick.net/skept/RadHaz or https://citizendium.org/wiki/Radiation_Hazards
You might want to post this there as well! -- Jess
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160791X22000276?via%3Dihub
Great article! Something I wonder if you'd be able to cover is if this radiophobia has made its way into the insurance industry. I saw an interview by democratic primary hopeful Robert Kennedy jr and he expressed anti-nuclear sentiments. The primary reason he stated was that apparently insurance companies just won't offer coverage for nuclear power plants. This didn't really smell right to me, as he also had misconceptions in other areas you've also written about, but do you know what he may have been referring to?
Nice article. Thank you. My concern is the use of cell phones. Pretty much everyone I know has theirs always in their hand or to their ear, and always near them when they sleep. From a radiation standpoint this may pose no risk. Using my gut-feeling scientific method 😀, I try to use my phone in a way that lessens any exposure - not next to me when I sleep, use speaker phone when talking, use my hardwired laptop to check email when I can etc....
My concerns about cell phone radiation may be unfounded. However, these adjustments in my use of this technology are hardly disruptive to me so I figure in the lack of 100% certainty, it doesn’t hurt anything.
One last point. I worked in oncology sales a few years back and I always asked the Radiation Oncologists (14 of them) that I know what they think and do they see any increase in head and neck cancer due to cell phone use. I forget the ratio but it was about half that said they didn’t feel it was an issue and the other half said they noticed an increase in small tumors in the skulls behind the ears - usually on the side the patient holds the phone (the good news about these tumors is that they are easily removable and usually not the type that metastasize) I realize this is not a clinical study and with an n-value of 14 this data is probably meaningless. However, it just reinforced that my cautious approach is a reasonable one.
Thank you again for this article. It definitely gave me something to think about!