Radiation Exposure and Risk

Ionizing radiation damages living things and contaminates the environment, sometimes permanently. Studies have shown increases in cancer around nuclear facilities and uranium mines. Radiation mutates genes which can cause genetic damage across generations.

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Entries from October 1, 2011 - October 31, 2011

Wednesday
Oct122011

Help us protect children from radiation exposure! 

Give comments on nuclear power and cancer at a committee meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the Keck Center of The National Academies 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC. You should register for this meeting. The NAS has been asked by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assess the cancer risks around NRC-licensed facilities. The NRC has made several presentations downplaying the potential health effects of radiation, even to children, who are more vulnerable. The NRC could use the committee's conclusions to continue to risk our health and safety if we don't speak up. The NAS Nuclear Radiation and Studies Board (NRSB) is having its final meeting before its phase one report on the proper ways to assess radiation risk is released in December, 2011.  Phase two should begin following this report. For more background information on the charge of this committee see here. If you cannot make give verbal comments, please send written comments to crs@nas.edu.

Beyond Nuclear has attended and given comments at some of the meetings held in the Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, DC and Los Angeles areas where the NRC has attempted to minimize exposure risk in its comments, despite science that demonstrates otherwise. The NAS has failed to have a meeting in the Northeast/New England, in effect closing off oral public comment to an area of the United States that has a large number of poorly operating and leaky reactors such as Vermont Yankee and Oyster Creek. Where the committee has hosted meetings, many local concerned citizens have come to speak to the committee, to share the personal and community health experiences of living near nuclear facilities. Beyond Nuclear will attend the fifth and final meeting to give final comments. Come participate with us and let the committee know the impact radiation has had on your community.

Monday
Oct032011

Beyond Nuclear book talk on radiation and children 

Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist for Beyond Nuclear, will discuss her essay "Radiation and Children: The Ignored Victims" that appeared in the book Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World, on Monday, October 10, 2011, 6:30 pm at Busboys and Poets, 1025 5th Street, NW Washington DC.

Cindy will be part of an author panel and will talk about the particular risk radiation exposure poses to children - especially relevant in light of the similar dangers currently being faced by children in Fukushima, Japan.  Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World, is a collection of essays that focuses on the experience of victims, and creative ways to address increasing assaults including wars, terrorist acts and environmental pollution.

“ A book and an unexploded bomb may lay equally motionless, but their kinetic potential is vastly different. A bomb may kill hundreds of people, but a book can change millions—think of Common Sense, Das Kapital, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or The Gulag Archipelago. To that energizing company, add Transforming Terror. This practical, inspiring book cuts through moral relativism by defining terror according to how it affects its victims. It is a luminous collection of wisdom. You’ll want many of these essays in your library forever. I needed to read it and you do, too. ”-Peter Coyote, actor and author of Sleeping Where I Fall

More.