Nuclear power sounds like a good idea, until something like this happens. The cleanup process at the Fukushima reactors is slow going and high stakes. Humans must in essence give their lives to save the lives of others, and while this sounds glorious in some military venues I don't think many of us would volunteer. The fuel rods need to be removed, the normal systems for their removal have been destroyed, and a mistake could cause a meltdown that would additionally contaminate the immediate area severely and the planetary atmosphere as well, though at what level it is impossible to know. There is talk, and some movement by those who have the means, away from higher risk areas. The southern hemisphere is likely to be far safer than the northern with regard to radiation for the foreseeable future. What interests me is how few people here in the US seem to care one whit about it. Radiation is invisible, and we already have cancer, so how much worse could it get? And will we continue to sell nuclear reactors around the world for the purpose of powering televisions and washing machines? Is there any movement toward less dangerous low tech solutions? I'm not seeing it.

The Cochrane folks have determined that mammography is no longer indicated as cancer screening for women of any age! Here's the brochure: http://www.cochrane.dk/screening/mammography-leaflet.pdf. You can get them in any language at: http://www.cochrane.dk/.

HOMEWORK ATSDR CSEM
Taking an Environmental Health History
atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=17&po=o (or pdf on moodle
complete post-test questions 1-8 by next class

class on week 11 is when we get the take-home final
due friday week 12
homeworks will be reviewed over Thanksgiving
and notice given to students who haven't complete them
no homeworks will be graded late

ACAM & AAEM conference in PDX this week
Marianne Marchese is speaking, 2002 NCNM grad
her book: 8 Wks to Wmns Wellness
( notes (melanoma notes integrated from this date back, radiation notes integrated from this entry to radiation protocol)Collapse )

Here's something that was just posted to linked in the other day. I got it because I am a member of a naturopathic discussion group: ( get enlightened behind hereCollapse )

Or not. Gazillions of jellyfish are swarming around nukes in Japan, Israel and Scotland. They've forced 3 nukes to shut down. Any large industrial facility that uses ocean water in volume is at risk of filter overwhelm, including desalinization plants and coastal power plants. They're cleaning up Jellyfish in droves from beaches in Lebanon to keep tourism going. In Savanna, Georgia they're saying that warmer water temperatures brought them in early. It may be that this is just an early and generous "jellyfish season" that has nothing to do with nukes or global warming. In the image below a workman is emptying a filter in a Mediterranean water cooling system for a coal burning plant, and getting a load of jellyfish.(  Images behind cut.Collapse )

Ever since a few brave scientists started speaking out about their findings---that mammograms weren't actually savings lives, that they aren't the best way to screen for breast pathology---the numbers of women who are going in for regular breast squishing and irradiation has been on the decrease. And the folks who were in that biz are not happy about it. Their pockets aren't so full anymore.

I don't believe the powers when they tell me to panic. And I definitely don't believe them when they tell me NOT to panic. I think back to 9/11, when all those people in burning skyscrapers, just hit by airplanes, were told to remain calm and stay at their desks. The ones who decided for themselves that the situation was fubar and ran down the stairs were the ones who survived.

For this Japanese quake and tsunami the media machine has been spewing something constantly. Panic. Don't panic. Nothing to worry about. All under control. Oooops, out of control. Whoopsie.

It's up to us to decide what to do for ourselves.

Japan reportedly to rate nuclear crisis at highest level
By Chico Harlan, Monday, April 11, 9:30 PM

TOKYO — Japanese authorities planned Tuesday to raise their rating of the severity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis to the highest level on an international scale, equal to that of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, according to the Kyodo news agency.

A level 7 accident, according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, is typified by a “major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-to-raise-rating-of-nuclear-crisis-to-highest-level/2011/04/11/AFxrFEND_story.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

This graphic is so cool that they're selling pdf's of it for two buck fifty. Gives better information on relative exposures and health effects of acute radiation exposure than anything else I've seen.

Finally Mercola chips in: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/03/25/how-to-protect-yourself-from-nuclear-radiation.aspx and as usual I find his take quite reasonable.
( notesCollapse )

Sodium bicarbonate in the form of baking soda: cheap medicine for maintaining a favorable acid-base balance in human metabolism. So many things can throw this balance off, that it's silly not to have some baking soda on hand--for any home or field hospital. The article recommends that we stock up with some 25-30 pounds of the stuff. There are some other good ideas in here too.