Radiation is good for you!?
Ann Coulter recently appeared on the “O’Reilly Factor” to advance the argument that that radiation is good for you.
Though I normal try to ignore Coulter’s opinion on most subjects, I’d like to take this opportunity to draw attention to The National Academies of Science report on the risks from ionizing radiation.
Among the 2005 report’s conclusions:
- There is no safe level or threshold of ionizing radiation exposure.
- Even exposure to background radiation causes some cancers. Additional exposures cause additional risks.
- Radiation causes other health effects such as heart disease and stroke, and further study is needed to predict the doses that result in these non-cancer health effects.
- It is possible that children born to parents that have been exposed to radiation could be affected by those exposures.
The timing of Ann Coulter’s wildly inaccurate claims are insensitive at best and certainly no consolation to those risking their lives to stabilize the nuclear crisis in Japan.