Dr. Conca reports that, aside from exposure to the Sun causing skin cancers and to radon causing lung cancer to underground uranium miners who smoke, it is very rare for anyone to be hurt by any dose of radiation. Contrary to the hype and fear pandering by the media on Fukushima, and even Chernobyl, the observable radiation health effects from both accidents were small. In the case of Fukushima, it was as close to zero as one can get. In the case of Chernobyl, although significant, it was still very small. The reason you might not know this, is that almost everyone uses the wrong model to predict health effects from radiation at these levels, and only recently have the global health, nuclear and radiation agencies realized that error and are moving to correct. However, as with most scientists, this change has been quiet and sort of cloaked in scientific jargon. It is also very political since it involves a lot of money and has spanned a lot of time. But the implications are enormous.
The latest scientific society to make clear that we have been doing this wrong is probably the most qualified to understand this issue, the Health Physics Society. It is the scientific society that includes radiation protection scientists. And they recently put out a revised position statement on Radiation Risk In Perspective. In it, they advise against estimating health risks to people from exposures to ionizing radiation that are anywhere near natural background levels because statistical uncertainties at these low levels are great. In other words, any possible adverse health effects resulting from radiation doses below 10,000 mrem (100 mSv) are not detectable. Background radiation across the Earth varies from 3 mrem/yr (0.03 mSv/yr) over the oceans to 10,000 mrem/yr (100 mSv/yr) in areas of high elevation made up of granitic rocks. Thus, it is not surprising that populations subjected to radiation levels of 10,000 mrem (100 mSv) or below, show little radiation effects.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/06/24/radiation-poses-little-risk-to-the-world/#4743402d4e16
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