"What the public doesn’t know is that the fundamental assumption of radiation safety and regulation simply isn’t true. This is the case against Linear No-Threshold."

I found this video getting more interesting the further it went on. No relationship between cancer and radiation? And cancer rates go down for those with radiation exposure? You may be radiation deficient?

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[–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I found this very compelling, but when he started praising the current presidential administration it began sounding more like libertarian anti-regulation propaganda than a legitimate critique.

The sources seem good so there's merit for review, but I don't think the solution is "assume everyone has the same level of biological repair ability and abolish the current safety measures of the industry".

Cancer is also not the only harmful thing radiation does - you can also get infertility, birth defects, etc at lower doses.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago*

    Cancer is also not the only harmful thing radiation does - you can also get infertility, birth defects, etc at lower doses.

    This is a good point. eg, there was even mention of decreases in all cause mortality associated with 'low' dose radiation, but there's quantity of life and quality of life. "Oh yeah, you'll live 6 months longer than anyone, but we have to take a random body part each couple of years"

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago

    I found this very compelling, but when he started praising the current presidential administration it began sounding more like libertarian anti-regulation propaganda than a legitimate critique.

    Contain your zealotry. It's possible for the bad guys to be correct sometimes.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago*

    He tries to argue that evolution would disprove radiation damage, but what is beneficial to the population can be detrimental to the individual. If you have procreated before developing cancer, you have passed on your genes, that's an evolutionary success.

    Other than that, the data showed is intriguing.

    I wish the people downvoting would explain why, though.

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  • Whoa!

    Thank you for sharing, I'm living at 11,200 ft right now, very likely receiving higher doses of radiation coincidentally, and this video and especially it's included data that I had no knowledge of whatsoever previously, has literally changed how I see every part of the world that has to do with radiation.

    Fascinating, reassuring, fascinating.

    I asked everyone I knew in the medical field about Fukushima after it happened, literal doctors, about why there were no radioactive casualties and I got so many answers that didn't fit.

    And here's the answer, LNT.

    Crazy.

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  • 6 comments in c/energy@slrpnk.net view that post

    There are more concerns with radiation than just cancer risk.

    And until we better understand this self-repair mechanism, we shouldn't assume everyone has the same risk curve.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Perhaps this is true, however it's a slippery slope. "Don't mind my leaky reactor. If anything it's good for you, a little bit of extra radiation reduces your risk of cancer."

    Honestly OP this is such a weird message to be pushing. Are you heavily invested in nuclear or something?

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    That's not the message here at all. The message is that this overly cautious policy contributes to the public's poor understanding of the risks of radiation, which in turn causes harm e.g. in the form of overreactions when things go wrong (see the section from 20:50 onwards). For example, with the benefit of hindsight, evacuating Fukushima likely did much more harm than good, and the actual health effects of Chernobyl are to this date widely grossly overestimated.

    Honestly OP this is such a weird message to be pushing. Are you heavily invested in nuclear or something?

    What is so weird about pro-nuclear messaging on a green energy forum? Dispelling myths about nuclear is just as important as dispelling myths about renewables. And while I am not monetarily invested in nuclear, policy-wise I am heavily invested -- like anyone who cares about sustainability should be.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's not the message here at all.

    It's the downstream effects of your message that I'm worried about. We shouldn't get sloppy with nuclear material. Suggesting that a little radiation exposure isn't bad or a little water contamination isn't bad, while perhaps technically correct, can lead to sloppiness and eroding standards. People should be afraid of radiation so they respect it.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago*

    No one is suggesting to get sloppy with nuclear material or advocating for some bizarre Fallout-style radium cola society. What I am advocating for is a world where people know that getting a chest X-ray or eating a mushroom in Eastern Europe does not increase their risk of cancer from radiation exposure.

    For example, maybe you've forgotten, but the radiation psychosis when Fukushima happened was insane. We had loads of people in Europe, which is just about as far away from Fukushima as you can get, poring over those ocean radiation heatmaps for years -- when in reality Fukushima released so little radiation that not even the people in Fukushima were at any real risk. This is a direct consequence of unscientific, alarmist policies and messaging poisoning public perception.

    People should not be made afraid of radiation, because them "respecting it" gives them absolutely no benefit. There isn't really anything anyone can do in their daily lives to meaningfully avoid it regardless of how aware they are of it.

    This is why it is an organizational responsibility of society to create an environment where people can live their lives without ever thinking about radiation hazards -- which is what we have successfully done. Scaremongering contributes nothing to that except give people mental health issues and cause them to vote for insane policies that shut down clean, carbon-free nuclear plants in order to replace them with coal and LNG (which, ironically, contribute more to radiation hazards than nuclear does).

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    The scientific community is not a unified body, so having scientists questioning any scientific model does not seem like a "wow" moment. But, when the discourse starts including strong vocabulary, admittedly I start questioning/researching claims. And I appreciate it when studies conclude by saying things like: cautious of interpretation is needed, or further studies are warranted, etc.

    Apart from that, sure, maybe the LNT model needs some re-evaluation, maybe not - I dunno, time will tell. Still, to my understanding, one problem with ionising radiation is that the dosage received by people is not always as tightly controlled as needed for it to be safe, despite all efforts. Not even in work environments.

    For example:

    A total of six studies (covering 3,409,717 individuals), which were published between 2006 and 2021 from 4 countries met the inclusion criteria. (...) Pooled analyses indicated that occupational radiation exposure was associated with a 67% higher risk of thyroid cancer

    The researchers assembled a cohort of more than 300,000 radiation-monitored workers from France, the United Kingdom and the United States, employed at nuclear facilities between 1944 and 2016. (...) The study revealed a positive association between prolonged low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality from these hematological cancers. The study concluded that health risk remains low at low exposure levels. Nevertheless, the evidence of associations between total radiation exposure and multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes signals the necessity for future radiation studies to expand the discussion on radiation protection and occupational safety measures on a global scale.

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