Scaremongering about Fukushima radiation is damaging

Part of the problem in assigning comparative values to things like psychological damage is that those values are completely arbitrary. What will damage one person's psyche may cause another no discomfort whatsoever while a third person in the exact same circumstance would be rendered mentally incapable for the remainder of their life.

In other words, very difficult to quantify.

The physical effects, however, can be readily studied, measured, and predicted. All based on rigorously defined criteria.

New Scientist has this article (which looks identical to the one linked in the OP):

"We've got to stop these sorts of reports coming out, because they are really upsetting the Japanese population," says Gerry Thomas at Imperial College London, who is attending the meeting. "The media has a hell of a lot of responsibility here, because the worst post-Chernobyl effects were the psychological consequences and this shouldn't happen again."

Professor Gerry A Thomas
Chair in Molecular Pathology
Department of Surgery & Cancer

Tel: +44 (0)20 8383 2443
Email:

Never mind the radiation, or the policies that lead to the disaster, let's not talk a out it and hope it goes away or is forgotten about. This seems to be what is being pursued as an agenda in the MSM.

More from Ms. Thomas:

Gerry Thomas is dismayed by misconceptions about radiation – which is at low levels ever-present in the Earth’s atmosphere coming from sources such as rocks, soil, and the sun. She says it's people's perception of radiation that scares them and the media plays on that fear. But she admits that nuclear authorities often have themselves to blame. On the 14th of March the Japanese government was assuring the world that no radiation had escaped while an American military ship with sensitive radioactivity sensor was detecting low levels of radiation 100 miles off the Japanese coast. The navy said the amount detected was not dramatic – less, in fact, than the radiation exposure received from about one month of exposure to natural background radiation from, but the story, even before the explosion that is said to have exposed spent fuel rods, has shed doubt on the openness of the Japanese authorities who have been accused of playing down the significance of leaks in the past.

Holding a chair in nuclear medicine I would presume she knows that the inverse square law works on reverse as well.

It seems to me that a lot of the psychological impact of this was inflicted due to lack of transparency and an overall history of documented corruption in the nuclear industry, especially around Tepco.

I doubt any scaremongering will be as damaging as what will come years from
now due to this radiation. cancers that after 10-20 years can't be proven to be
linked to this disaster perhaps?
radiation is bad for you, thats why they don't use radium on watches or clocks
anymore.

Great find OP! Scaremongering is absolutely as damaging as the radiation being emitted by the damaged reactor at Fukushimi. As far as I see this whole development, this industrial disaster is place no one has gone before. Some liken the scenario to Chernobyl, but Chernobyl was a different kind of reactor. Moreover, only one reactor was in core meltdown, whereas in Japan multiple cores may have succumb to meltdown. It is only natural for people to be on pins and needles about what is taking place in Japan, and around the world because of the possibility of radiation particulates spreading to other areas. Still, it is not something people should brood over either. Depression is just as harmful as radiation, and it can affect people physically, psychologically, and mentally.

We are talking about illnesses that are possible decades from now among the general population, and people are immediately running for the nearest exit and claiming the sky is falling? We must also remember that Japan has one of the highest rates of suicide among developed nations, and what is the point of posturing with all the doom and gloom predictions surrounding the Fukushima reactor disaster? I suppose to add more insult to injury, increase insurance costs as one poster mentioned, scuttle a once thriving economy, get ratings in the media, and set the stages for potential civil unrest somewhere down the road? Everyone in their right mind knows the situation is dangerous, but what is the point of making worse off than it already is? We have to think about the Japanese people and what they are undergoing at the moment. It is far worse than anything the international community is going to deal with from this disaster. That is fact! As far as we know everything is being done to contain radiation being emitted by the damaged reactors, and no doubt a lot of it is deadly.

Still, this my friends is one of those places no man or woman has ever gone before. We are all learning as this thing unfolds. No sense pouring on the doom and gloom because most everyone knows it is an ongoing catastrophe. The consequences and ramifications are still unknown. Perhaps, those in the scientific community and the media should get their stories straight before shooting from the hip when publicly commenting about such a controversial, and dangerous matter? Or perhaps not, because lately it seems shoddy reporting and sensationalism gets ratings and that is all they care about. If any think it is a well-informed populace the media cares about then they are sadly mistaken. I rest my case, and fearmonger to your heart's content. It will not magically present a rainbow over Fukushima, or magically make the radiation disappear.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Yet, something tells me that they engendered the disbelief they are lamenting by their own desires to 'control' the sentiments of the Japanese people, and by extension, the world.

That's how I interpreted it: a desire for manufactured consent. A bunch of scientists/experts are grieving over the reality that people are allowed to judge the evidence/facts for themselves and then respond accordingly.

I do not like being told what or how to think; this perpetuation of stressing over freedom of thought is more likely to aggravate harmful psychological effects of the incident than not.

Simply put; this isn't a pleading to correct misinformation, this is a pleading to regulate your mind.