Rad Nuke Advice to a Friend

Konichiwa Waccoons,

I just spent the last two hours crafting this for a friend who was concerned about one of the typical warnings about fallout we're seeing lately. I thought some of you might be interested. And some of you will be outraged by things I think. I'm busy these days, so don't expect a tit for tat response to your responses.

My friend has a compromised immune system by the way. Advisory: I'm not a M.D. nor a nuclear physicist. I am someone who was quite active in the anti-nuclear movement '78-83. No Nukes!!

_____

Anywhoo, I also got this forward from him.

"Avocado" Wolfe, "medicinal mushrooms" like we, and the cops, don't know that means psilocybin!?

As an extreme but factual post, it's reasonable. It's also alarmist and fringy. Anyone with a compromised immune system should be concerned. Of course panic is the most real and imminent danger at this time and in the days and weeks to come.

Protect yourself, as I outlined in my FB reply to you. His suggestions are valid, beware overdosing on KI, that can be very nasty.

For us in North America, as far as I can tell weighing the different versions of how "experts" interpret the medical and environmental science, the likely scenario is this:

Increased levels of radiation in the air and dropping out onto the ground and in the water, for all of the Northern Hemisphere. But the issue is, at what levels?

The Swiss just announced it would be more or less equivalent to Chernobyl, half way around the globe as we experienced it. Not the levels that dropped on the Ukraine and in a plume to the northwest of the disaster site.

"Avocado" says they're going to be significant and dangerous. Public health doctors, with a few exceptions in the anti-nuclear movement, say they won't be hazardous and will at the most, increase future cancer risks.

You asked for information about ways to remove radiation from the body. Check out the article linked below, especially at the end for what they say about ways to help the body resist and clear, radiation when exposure has been high. It recounts an extreme case of medical malpractice, but the science is sound, and there's a good chart of rad levels and effects.

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4210012...th-health_care

Keep in mind that the treatments listed are for extreme exposure, not anything we can expect, at this point. Even if all four to seven plants suffer full meltdown, seven Chernobyls, which so far doesn't seem likely, we won't get what the workers fighting the fuel overheating, fires in the fuel storage pools, etc. would get from that.

We're nowhere near that. By "we" I mean the people around the planet, other than those nearby in Japan, and worst case if the prevailing winds quit prevailing and blow to the west, the Chinese nearby. And I'm talking about full, multiple meltdowns, not the current crisis.

It's a matter of amount, frequency and comprehensiveness of exposure. Prepare, be cautious but don't buy the inflated claims by alarmists. Don't solely trust the government and corporate officials and their flacks in the media. Question everything that comes from the NRC flacks. Balance between these two extremes, the fringies and the straights, listen to the independent experts, especially those committed to opposing nuclear threats like Michio Kaku and Helen Caldicott. Sounds like a contradiction, "independent committed opposition" but there is no objectivity in these matters, all data has to be interpreted, everyone has a bias.

When the air from Japan comes, the first amount late tomorrow, watch and wait. If the levels are significant (I know what's significant? Depends on who's talking.) don't drink the milk or eat the cheese down the road.

I need to make my occasional Costco run today and get gas. I hope there aren't big crowds, but won't be surprised if there are. I'll probably pick up some freezable food, and some backup dried and canned goods, more than I would buy otherwise. I'm not going to go whole hog. I don't have the space, and I'll deal with things as they come.

If what is going on feels too much for you, and you have the financial means, there's always Argentina! I've been meaning to visit for years. But the planes, busses, highways and ocean traffic might get a little dense. Long waits and all that, like for those trying to leave Japan right now.

I'm only half kidding. We're not there yet.

The biggest thing we have to fear, is fear itself. FDR was right about that in the early thirties in the depths of the Great Depression, it's still true, especially in any time of crisis.

Anxiety, stress, panic, for those outside of the immediate danger zone, more likely to cause us health problems, than the amounts of radiation we can expect, at this juncture. Fear really is the mind killer, as well as the body killer.

I know under the circumstances that staying calm is a bit of a joke. I felt cold this morning before sleep and while waking up. Colder than I have all winter. That's partly emotional, partly cause I have a thermostat on my living room wall gas heater that's hard to adjust. And my temp setting of 68-70, was down to 67 or so. Plus spending most of the day, ten hours plus, in front of my computer, creeps up on a guy.

By the way the two hyperlinks at the end of Jim's forwarded emails? infowars? That's Alex Jones' website. Jones is an alarmist, conspiracy mongering, self promoting, bloviating stinky douchebag. Some of the information he conveys has a connection to reality, but it's always overhyped and designed to feed fear and anger. It's how he sells his books and DVD's.

He has a long history of doing that, ever since the Waco Branch Davidian conflagration started by the ATF in the early eighties.

(Yes, the government was to blame for the deaths of women and children, but David Koresh was a cult leader and sociopath. He bears the chief responsibility for what happened to his followers. He was a coward who topped himself in the final minutes, leaving his deluded "family" to perish in the flames. Jones puts the responsibility for Waco on the "one world government, new world order, black helicopters, Illuminati/Bilderberg/Reptilian Overlords, fun but not to be confused with reality.)

Jones then went on to make his, "alternative, news you'll hear no where else" bones, by cozying up to the right wing, covert and not so covert neo-fascist and racist militia movement. Paranoid lefties, some of us, like him as well. He's entertaining, if you can stand the constant exaggeration and prevarication that explodes from his mouth every day for a several hours.

Last winter I spent hours and hours reading various local Austin web chats about him. His pattern, as I describe it, is shown there to be consistent and that's what multiple sources say about him. Some of them much more dismissive than I am! I could go on and on about why I reject his legitimacy as a source of reliable information, but I won't. To be fair, I should say he has plenty of fans, many around our region, especially in the West County, but also many around the world.

Sorry to go on, but you know me! Feel free to ask questions. Be as well as you can. Be Cool, Stay Strong!

I pity and mourn for the people of northeastern and north central Honshu. May those living endure their suffering and find new lives in due course.

Miles


* Make peace as much as possible. Fight only if given no other choice. Live in the interstices of that dilemma.

P.S. After I wrote the above, I saw the news from the NYT's that suppressing the fires in the storage "ponds" and cooling the fuel cores in the damaged reactors, is expected to take weeks. Like we all know, how much, how long, and how exposed are what counts when it comes to radiation dangers. I say none is best, no more than normal planetary background of course.

My brother claimed last night that small amounts are beneficial. They've done studies. He also wants the City of Sebastopol to disband its Police Department and contract its Public Safety Services from the County Sheriffs Department.

I love my brother, in some ways he's even more of a contraire than I am!