Google it if you hand not heard. The mainstream mexdia does not always tell us about issues like this.
One of many reports can be read here:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...
"Just before leaving office, the Bush Administration approved new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radiation releases that dramatically weaken public protections. In particular, the new PAGs would permit radioactivity in drinking water hundreds to millions of times higher than longstanding EPA standards.
The PAGs weren't able to published in the Federal Register before Inauguration, but unless the new Obama Administration pulls them back immediately, they could be published in the next few days.
The Order issued by the White House Tuesday to suspend all rulemaking activities until the new Administration can review them might be interpreted by Bush holdovers at EPA as strictly only covering formal rulemaking. In order to avoid rulemaking legal requirements, the Bush Administration issued these new standards as Protective Action Guides instead. So it is critical to get EPA to immediately pull the PAGs back from the Federal Register.
Please call the EPA Administrator's office at 202-564-4700 today and leave a message, asking that the Radiation Protective Action Guides be withdrawn immediately from publication in the Federal Register.
For more information, see http://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/p...
or contact Dan Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge the Gap at 831 336-8003"
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(For clarity, that text above was quoted from the first link -- they are not my words). Wow I didn't know radiation was allowed in our drinking water in the first place! I'm surprised that our life expectancy hasn't been reduced to 50 because of all the poisons they make us consume! Maybe he's expecting a nuclear attack or is getting ready for when they build those nuclear energy plants all over America because it's "clean" and will fight "global warming!"
Anonymous: Sunlight also gives of UV radiation and it doesn't contaminate water supplies--I think they're talking about the bad kind of radiation. Bush simply didn't care about the average person in this country. It showed over and over again during his 8 erroneous years. Rob,
You do know that radiation weakens the immune system and causes cancer don't you?
Count me in I'll be happy to call! seriously you still wonder why bush doesn't care while we were losing jobs he was in texas playing golf. Um... First off... What don't you understand about the term "the Bush Administration"?
"Bush" didn't do anything... Some of the thousands of people that work in the government did this...
All "Bush" did was sign on the line where they told him to... Just like every other president before him.
If this is some "Evil" scheme to kill us all and destroy the world... Why would the Democrat Controlled Congress allow this to get to his desk in the first place?
You REALLY need to learn how your government works before you try and point fingers at a single individual.
It is just as legitimate to ask "Why did Congress, controlled by the Democrats that only have our best interests at heart*, allow this decision to stand?"
*Sarcasm
Let me guess... You are not aware that EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE IN THE UNIVERSE is a bit radioactive.
YOU are slightly radioactive...
WATER is naturally slightly radio active...
That is why when you see someone with a Geiger counter, it makes 'click' noises even when no where near an intense source of radioactivity.
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Background radiation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rad...
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Radiation inside the human body
Some of the essential elements that make up the human body, mainly potassium and carbon, have radioactive isotopes that add significantly to our background radiation dose. An average human contains about 30 milligrams of potassium-40 (40K) and about 10 nanograms (10鈭? g) of carbon-14 (14C). Excluding internal contamination by external radioactive material, the largest component of internal radiation exposure from biologically functional components of the human body is from potassium-40. The decay of about 4,000 nuclei of 40K per second[7] makes potassium the largest source of radiation in terms of number of decaying atoms. The energy of beta particles produced by 40K is also about 10 times more powerful than the beta particles from 14C decay. There are about 1,200 beta particles per second produced by the decay of 14C. However, a 14C atom is in the genetic information of half the cells, while potassium is not a component of DNA. The decay of a 14C atom in DNA happens about 50 times per second, changing a carbon atom to one of nitrogen.[8]
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Background radiation is the ionizing radiation constantly present in the environment, emitted from a variety of natural and artificial sources. The term usually refers to the average absorbed dose a member of the general public receives from this source every year. Primary contributions come from:
Sources in the earth. These include sources in food and water, which are incorporated in the body, and in building materials and other products that incorporate those radioactive sources;
*Sources from space, in the form of cosmic rays;
*Sources in the atmosphere. One significant contribution comes from the radon gas that is released from the Earth's crust and subsequently decays into radioactive atoms that become attached to airborne dust and particulates. Another contribution arises from the radioactive atoms produced in the bombardment of atoms in the upper atmosphere by high-energy cosmic rays.
*About 15% of background radiation dose to the general public comes from medical X-rays and nuclear medicine applied directly to patients.
*About 3% of background radiation comes from other man-made sources such as:
***Smoke detectors
***Self-luminous dials and signs
***Global radioactive contamination due to historical nuclear weapons testing
***Nuclear power station or nuclear fuel reprocessing accidents (though these are rare)
***Normal operation of facilities used for nuclear power and scientific research
***Emissions from burning fossil fuels, such as power plants
***Emissions from nuclear medicine facilities and patients
***Emissions from the improper disposal or recycling of radioactive materials used in nuclear medicine
Accidental exposure to man-made radioactive substances can result in radiation exposure that is many times that received from background sources, whether natural or man-made. Additionally, radiation therapy can cause relatively high levels of exposure. However, when it comes to background radiation, naturally occurring sources are responsible for the vast majority of radiation exposure.
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Natural background radiation:
Natural background radiation comes from two primary sources: cosmic radiation and terrestrial sources. The worldwide average background dose for a human being is about 2.4 millisievert (mSv) per year.[1] This exposure is mostly from cosmic radiation and natural isotopes in the Earth. This is far greater than human-caused background radiation exposure, which in the year 2000 amounted to an average of about 0.01 mSv per year from historical nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power accidents and nuclear industry operation combined,[2] and is greater than the average exposure from medical tests, which ranges from 0.04 to 1 mSv per year. Older coal-fired power plants without effective fly ash capture are one of the largest sources of human-caused background radiation exposure.
The level of natural background radiation varies depending on location, and in some areas the level is significantly higher than average.[3] Such areas include Ramsar in Iran,[4] Guarapari in Brazil, Kerala in India,[5] and Yangjiang in China.[6] In Ramsar a peak yearly dose of 260 mSv has been reported.
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Cosmic radiation
The Earth, and all living things on it, are constantly bombarded by radiation from outer space. This radiation primarily consists of positively charged ions from protons to iron nuclei derived from the sun and from other sources outside our solar system. This radiation interacts with atoms in the atmosphere to create secondary radiation, including X-rays, muons, protons, alpha particles, pions, electrons, and neutrons. The immediate dose from cosmic radiation is largely from muons, neutrons, and electrons, and this dose varies in different parts of the world based largely on the geomagnetic field and altitude. This radiation is much more intense in the upper troposphere, around 10 km altitude, and is thus of particular concern for airline crews and frequent passengers, who spend many hours per year in this environment. Here, the radiation exposure is not primarily due to the cosmic ray interaction with the thin atmosphere, but with the dense fuselage of the aircraft, causing relatively high background radiation in the cabin while the aircraft is at high altitude. Similarly, cosmic ray interaction with spacecraft components produces secondary radiation that causes higher background exposure in astronauts than in humans on the surface of Earth. Astronauts in low orbits, such as in the International Space Station or the Space Shuttle, are at low risk because the magnetic field of the Earth shields out most cosmic rays. Outside low Earth orbit, as experienced by the Apollo astronauts who travelled to the Moon, this background radiation is much more intense, and represents a considerable obstacle to potential future long term human exploration of the moon or Mars.
Cosmic rays also cause elemental transmutation in the atmosphere, in which secondary radiation generated by the cosmic rays combines with atomic nuclei in the atmosphere to generate different radioactive isotopes. Many so-called cosmogenic nuclides can be produced, but probably the most notable is carbon-14, which is produced by interactions with nitrogen atoms. These cosmogenic nuclides eventually reach the Earth's surface and can be incorporated into living organisms. The production of these nuclides varies slightly with short-term variations in solar cosmic ray flux, but is considered practically constant over long scales of thousands to millions of years. The constant production, incorporation into organisms and relatively short half-life of carbon-14 are the principles used in radiocarbon dating of ancient biological materials such as wooden artifacts or human remains.
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Terrestrial sources
Radioactive material is found throughout nature. It occurs naturally in the soil, rocks, water, air, and vegetation. The major radionuclides of concern for terrestrial radiation are common elements with low-abundance radioactive isotopes, like potassium and carbon, or rare but intensely radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, radium and radon. Most of these sources have been decreasing, due to radioactive decay since the formation of the Earth, because there is no significant amount currently transported to the Earth. Thus, the present activity on earth from uranium-238 is only half as much as it originally was because of its 4.5 billion year half-life, and potassium-40 (half life 1.25 billion years) is only at about 8% of original activity. The effects on humans of the actual diminishment (due to decay) of these isotopes is minimal however. This is because humans evolved too recently for the difference in activity over a fraction of a half-life to be significant. Put another way, human history is so short in comparison to a half life of a billion years, that the activity of these long-lived isotopes has been effectively constant throughout our time on this planet.
In addition, many shorter half-life and thus more intensely radioactive isotopes have not decayed out of the terrestrial environment, however, because of natural on-going production of them. Examples of these are carbon-14 (cosmogenic), radium-226 (decay product of uranium-238) and radon-222 (a decay product of radium-226).
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Radon
Radon is a terrestrial source of ionizing radiation that is of particular concern because, although on average it is v Without seeing the actual numbers in question (and neither of your links does that) I will write this off as just more carping from the "Bush sucks" crowd.
Radiation is an easy bogeyman to throw eggs at. The truth is in the details. hundreds to millions of times???
doesn't mean much when the current amount is so small.
and he probably did it for a reason.
go hug a tree. |
