Sense About Science aka UK Science Media Centre lobbies for the pesticide companies in the European Union despite Brexit
Corporate funded lobby group Sense About Science aka the Science Media Centre is trying to get Europe to control pesticide lobbies agricultural science view now after its moderately successful campaign controlling the nuclear sciences (post Leveson Inquiry). Going to the Science Media Centre Website you can see all the corporations that donate to this lobbyist “charity” including big Agro, nuclear energy etc
Here is the latest in UK lobbying for corporate interests that gives a link to the Sense About Science “Charity” web site
http://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/opinion/trusting-science-in-an-age-of-truthiness/
More info on the Science Media Centre controlling the perception of health and environmental effects here with the help of the BBC amongst others;
https://nuclear-news.net/?s=Science+Media+Centre
And an article discusing some of the arguments about industries claims of “sound science”or Fiona Fox MD of the Science Media Centre`s claim of “the right science”
SNIP
“…
How sound is ‘sound science’?
While in itself far from perfect, the EU has a ‘farm to fork’ policy where each part of the food chain is monitored and – at least in some areas – applies the precautionary principle. The US system in contrast focuses only on the end product, which can only be regulated or banned when there is a scientific consensus on its danger or toxicity. Meanwhile, Europe’s precautionary principle enables intervention without waiting for the end of the scientific debate.
From tobacco to climate change, there is a long history of industry tactics to create doubt over the scientific evidence, paying studies to maintain this doubt alive in the media and attacking any unwanted evidence as ‘junk science’ as opposed to ‘sound science’. In a hard hitting column published in Nature, science writer Colin Macilwain says: “The term ‘sound science’ has become Orwellian double-speak for various forms of pro-business spin.”9
This is just as true in food regulation. With TTIP, industry is taking its fake notion of ‘sound science’ to stage an ongoing attack on the EU food safety system, implying that it is not science-based. ECPA and CropLife for instance attack the EU pesticide risk assessment, demanding “the inclusion of science-based risk assessment as the unified basis for pesticide regulation”.10 Indeed, US-negotiators are already pushing strongly for a separate article on “science-based risk assessment” in TTIP.11
In fact, while industry claims that current EU risk assessments are more demanding than is scientifically legitimate, environmental and public health organisations are saying the opposite: science is showing that risk assessments and safety studies – notably for pesticides and GMOs – should be strengthened also in Europe.12 …”
END SNIP
https://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2014/07/ttip-lose-lose-deal-food-and-farming
BBC and Science Media Centre (SMC UK) are pro nuclear spruikers
the BBC Science team’s involvement in a shocking display of bad science during the commemorations of the 2011 disaster in 2016 March this year. Even though there was outrage in the scientific community at the Fukushima video, it was some months before the BBC quietly took down the video.
the public that saw the biased Fukushima video were unaware of the wrong and dangerous information that was given.
There are many other articles out there that show the BBC defending Geraldine Thomas (BBC Expert) after the complaints came in and rebuffs for that on fissionline magazine and this was also added pressure that forced the BBC to take the Fukushima video down. (Ed note: Geraldine Thomas is currently in Australia, extolling the benefits of the nuclear industry, and downplaying the health effects of ionising radiation) )
Sellafield – Contempt of Parliament – BBC News missed 
it. https://europeannewsweekly.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/sellafield-contempt-of-parliament-bbc-news-missed-it/by arclight2011part2 The nuclear industry supported press, in rebuffing the BBC Panorama teams claims of safety issues and lies to Parliament, we see some counters to the safety concerns but no response to the well documented evidence of the head of the Sellafield consortium lying to the Parliamentary committee and covering up the grave incident of plutonium release (and its cost) in November 2014.
Tony Price lies to Parliament (from Panorama Documentary) [on original]
The Spokesperson for Sellafield can be seen on the video acting a bit surprised at the questioning and revelations the Panorama reporter revealed. He just denied that any “spin” (ie lies) were said during the Parliamentary committee and that is the last word we have on this explosive revelation of criminality from the nuclear industry.
It is most surprising that the BBC News office did not pick this up as we see on the BBC web site they are fully aware of the issue of contempt of parliamentary procedure;
“….Examples of contempt include giving false evidence to a parliamentary committee, ….The Commons has the power to order anyone who has committed a contempt of Parliament to appear at the Bar of the House and to punish the offender…..”2008 BBC
Since that report was uncovered, the nuclear industry and their PR and government connections have swayed the public and eased their fears. The BBC and Science Media Centre (SMC UK) (Also called Sense About Science) was crucial to doing this and at the same time minimising the environmental and health impacts of the 2011 Fukushima disaster that had caused a huge drop in investor interest in nuclear projects.
So in the last 5 years the BBC has produced many supportive documentaries and educational materials favouring nuclear energy (Since the SMC UK started to receive large corporate funding) . In fact at the end of last year, the BBC science department was involved with promoting Sellafield and largely ignoring the many problems that existed there.
That was followed up by the BBC Science teams involvement in a shocking display of bad science during the commemorations of the 2011 disaster in 2016 March this year. Even though there was outrage in the scientific community at the Fukushima video, it was some months before the BBC quietly took down the video. Thereby, much of the public that saw the biased Fukushima video were unaware of the wrong and dangerous information that was given. Then just a couple of months ago a high profile visit to Sellafield by dignitaries was to underline the improvements and give Sellafield the all clear. Still other experts tried to combat the BBC and SMC UK PR management of all media regarding nuclear;
“The Ecologist, 12th August 2015 Dr David Lowry
Professor ‘Jim’ Al’Khalili’s ‘Inside Sellafield’ programme was a tour de force of pro-nuclear propaganda, writes David Lowry – understating the severity of accidents, concealing the role of the UK’s nuclear power stations in breeding military plutonium, and giving false reassurance over the unsolved problems of high level nuclear waste…”
The main thing for the BBC, government and nuclear industry was that the nuclear industry was still being perceived as above board and transparent. We saw a similar maneuver after the release of the Panorama Documentary on its You Tube site (Under BBC management orders?). The video was removed after just a few hours of being uploaded and after the link had been shared to an international social media audience. The video was put back up sometime later but after the interest had passed.
Although the media has largely ignored this story many experts have been commenting on the situation in Sellafield and there is a lot of well sourced data that bears the whistleblowers observations and claims (See source links below) . But it is the criminal manipulation of politicians during the Parliamentary committee process that demands our immediate attention. It undermines our Democracy.
Whilst discussing the issue of coverage, by the BBC, of the nuclear industry (with the exception of the excellent undercover investigative abilities of the BBC Panorama team) , I asked an experienced Science Media journalist and Author on how he viewed the BBC`s general coverage of nuclear matters over recent years and he had this to say;
“The BBC is guilty of a journalistic disgrace.” Karl Grossman, Professor of Journalism, State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, USA. [11th September 2016]
Meanwhile in the UK Paul Dorfman (Energy analyst spokesman for main stream UK media) said to me;
”Recent events reveal the ongoing national disgrace that is Sellafield, including the truly appalling state of the historic spent fuel ponds’….”
And Paul Dorfman was able to qualify his point through the excellent investigative work of the Panorama team. [11th September 2016]
In France an Energy systems engineer, well versed in La Hague (The French equivalent to Sellafield) and its impacts said this in response to a discussion on the Panorama revelations;
“….those plants, Sellafield and La Hague, would exterminate the whole world population in under 40 years, because there are tons of plutonium in Sellafield and tons in La Hague adding thousand times more than necessary to exterminate all animals through the world. The biggest aberration of history, the timing bomb for the global extinction, a potential aschimothusia .[“sacrifices” committed by force of a state ] …” Xavier Nast 11 September 2016
Marianne Birkby confirmed to me the ongoing “legacy” of dangerous safety practices at Sellafield;
“…The state of the Sellafield ponds is described by the BBC as an “historic legacy” but the “legacy” is ongoing with every reactor that continues to burn nuclear fuel whose waste is sent to Sellafield for reprocessing. . The now infamous photographs of the shocking state of the Sellafield ponds that were given to Radiation Free Lakeland by a brave whistleblower are not “historic.” Those shocking photographs are a graphic illustration of the continuing madness of nuclear power….” Marianne Birkby, Founder of Radiation Free Lakeland 11 September 2016
Sources for this article (Not already linked above)
The BBC Panorama You Tube documentary linkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1i3HScYak
Dr Lowry http://drdavidlowry.blogspot.ie/2016/09/inside-sellafield-and-military.html?spref=tw
Dr Ian Fairlie response to the Panorama findings and historical summary on Sellafield here http://www.ianfairlie.org/news/bbc-panorama-programme-sellafield/
Critical scientific analysis of the BBC Science departments dangerous and insulting attempts of reporting on Fukushima (And the reason that the BBC had to take down the video, some months later. The comments on this video are enlightening and you can see both pro nuclear and anti nuclear people actually agreeing and making known their complaints to the BBC) – March 2016https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrgdAA5oiIA
Note from writer; There are many other articles out there that show the BBC defending Geraldine Thomas (BBC Expert) after the complaints came in and rebuffs for that on fissionline magazine and this was also added pressure that forced the BBC to take the Fukushima video down.. The whole story of BBC bias in Energy matters is too vast to cover here but I leave you with the above Key words and links (for the researcher) . The truth will out!! – Shaun McGee
The lies and distortions of James Conca and his Science Media Centre advisors concerning the health of the children of Fukushima
There is an unacknowledged tragedy occurring for the children in Japan.
I think that you and your ilk are some of the most despicable human beings on the planet, willing to prostitute your intellectual abilities to mislead the public in support of an industry of death. Yet even I with such strident rhetoric don’t actually think the intention behind your rhetoric is to see thousands of children struggling with the agony of trying to survive thyroid cancer.
“Although some sporadic tumors unrelated to radiation may be included among our patients, the shortest latency period for both benign and malignant tumors was 1 year as occurred in 3 patients, whereas the longest time was 69 and 58 years, respectively (Fig. 1).” (Latency Period of Thyroid Neoplasia After Radiation Exposure
Shoichi Kikuchi, MD, PhD, et al. Department of Surgery, UCSF Affiliated Hospitals, San Francisco, CA. Journal List nAnn Surg v.239(4); Apr 2004 PMC1356259, full text at Link
{{{ Study Protocol for the Fukushima Health Management Survey – Thyroid Ultrasound Examination (TUE) Program
by Shunichi Yamashita, released online August 25, 2012
Note: Testing of the FY 2011 Cohort was actually performed in late 2011 through 2013. So claims that it is impossible for the FY 2011 Cohort results to be related to Fukushima is a misrepresentation of the actual data.
What were the results of those biopsies?
All of the figures I’ve given were drawn from the Thyroid Ultrasound Examination, FHMS http://www.fmu.ac.jp/radiationhealth/results/media/15-2_Thyroid_Ultrasound_Examination.pdf
Let’s return for a moment to Mr. Conca’s article.
Bald
Faced
Liar
Science Media Centres quietly go along with Australia’s Tony Abbott
Arclight 1 April 14 Australia and the UK covered up Fukushima using the Science Media centres with a small group of UK and Australian hand picked scientists..
The Science media centre (SMC) in the UK makes the BBC put on 1 of the 99 per cent who think there is a problem, with 1 climate denier from the remaimng 1 percent..
The UK government tells the SMC to manage the news..
The SMC is pro fracking and pro GMO too!
basically pro big buisness…
I think you were to kind with Cameron Christine.. The UK is managing climate change by saying it will be too far into the future to have any immediate effects. even after the weird weather and flooding we have been having in the UK over the winter. Also, they are commissioning some weather modification studies and has asked the SMC to deal with it.. So no articles on weather modification..
The SMC is funded and supported by petroleum, nuclear, pharma, BBC and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC UK) etc etc
follow the money! The SMC did
Great comments! I hope the refrigeration is solar!!
A plea for justice from CFR victims! Silenced by the UK Science Media Centre?
Allied NATO Government is hiding millions of
infectious NON HIV AIDS cases (like mine) under the “Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome (CFS)” ICD-code.
– Dr. Lorraine Day was on Joyce Riley’s military show THE POWER HOUR (9/12):”…HIV-Negative AIDS cases falsely reported and treated as CFS cases may be one of the biggest cover-ups we have seen.”
– In 1992 “…Newsweek made an even more shocking
announcement: …CFS patients who had the same immune system deficiencies as the NON-HIV AIDS cases…”
– Dr. Judy Mikovits stated on In Short Order (11/12) about CFS & Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME): “…consider this as NON HIV AIDS.”
– Neenyah Ostrom’s book “America’s Biggest Cover-up: 50
More Things…CFS & Its Link To AIDS” cites: “Some CFS
Patients May Be Non-HIV AIDS Cases.”
– NON HIV AIDS has been censored from mainstream media since 1992 (i.e., suspiciously, the same year that the *very mysterious* Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) presented).
Will GWS, CFS or AIDS ever make any progress unless we acknowledge these horrific facts?
My case goes up through the NIH, CDC, White House, WHO, to the UN. I testified federally in Washington-DC, and am published 16 times on 4 continents (including PEOPLE’S VOICE, FROM THE TRENCHES WORLD REPORT, & FUSE MAGAZINE).
E.g.,
www.ukprogressive.co.uk/the-aids-like-disease-seldom-mentioned/article20891.html
I hope that you will support this humanitarian issue, and
spread-the-news too (e.g., write a story, add to your e*Newsletter and/or
post
on Facebook/Twitter).
In the fight for humanity,
k
My life with NON HIV AIDS (including my federal testimony):
w ww.cfsstraighttalk.blogspot.c o m
Or simply google “NON HIV AIDS”
On the Science media centre so far,,
More to come on this sordid bit of informational control!!
Some of the research to date thats been posted up can be found here for the budding investigator!!
Fukushima cover up special – Science Media Centre UK DOES the BBC, in fact, DOES the whole country!!
FIONA FOX`S BOAT RACE
( Means FACE for non english speaking non cockney rhyming slang types)
Posted by Arclight2011part2
posted on nuclear-news.net
26 September 2013
The title says it all
But heres some of my research into these blighters .. its cluttered and unsorted but it will give you an idea of just how big a con this organisation is.. A registered charity working for the corporate PR machine.. Stunning! more to come in the next few days..
i have put a few things in the comments section of this article as well… there is a big problem with ME groups who resent what the SMC has done to their cause as well.. you can google that stuff or wait for me to get to that section of SMC science suppression campaign..
Science media: Centre of attention USA
Fiona Fox and her Science Media Centre are determined to improve Britain’s press. Now the model is spreading around the world.
Ewen Callaway
10 July 2013
“..Regardless, the SMC model is now spreading around the world, with the latest franchise slated to open in the United States around 2016. The centres are all run independently, but they abide by a unified charter crafted by Fox.
This means that Fox is about to take her message to a much wider audience. “I think there are problems with her reach,” says Connie St Louis, director of the science-journalism course at City University London and one of Fox’s loudest critics. “She’s becoming one of the most powerful people in science.”…”
“…That is a message that Fox has honed well since establishing the SMC in London in 2002. The centre’s aim is to get scientific voices into media coverage and policy debates …”
“… “Our philosophy is we’ll get the media to DO science better when scientists DO the media better,” says Fox. …”
http://www.nature.com/news/science-media-centre-of-attention-1.13362
Nature also funded the SMC UK :0
The role in the Fukushima cover up of the BBC in supporting corrupt Science Media Centres!
At the dawn of the 21st century in a little room in the UK an idea was hatched to provide media with scientists.. this 2 woman enterprise was to be funded by Monsanto and 80 odd other organisations.. The founder and director of this service was the brainchild of Fiona Fox.
guess which is Fionna?
This is the bbc`s Rebecca Morelle who knows one of the above or maybe both?
Does this guy have the hots for Fionna or Rebecca?
The connections to the BBC and other outlets in the UK gives the UK Science media an unparalleled power to manipulate the scientific argument.
Journalism would usually be looking from the outside of the science community as a check balance to fraud, incompetence or just plain mistakes.. A trained science journalist would assimilate the technical data and make a report based on unbiased oversight (depending on which newspapers they come from ).
Fionna Fox and the UK SMC decided that this oversight was getting in the way of her preferred scientists and has had many campaigns to sideline any other independent scientists or researchers.
Not content with fully corrupting UK science discussion especially on the BBC (who she has deep connections with ), as well as other main stream outlets. Fionna decided to open another in Australia.. Killing off some good critical thinking journalists and news outlets with the help of the likes Ashursts legal corporation (A UK headquartered corporation, currently trying to silence an Australian blogger – Christina Macpherson from http://www.nuclear-news.net ), therby, silencing the last of the independent voice in Australia (nearly)
Then came the Fukushima tragedy.. Fionna Fox then came swinging into action with her nuclear contacts to counter the truth of the situation in japan along side the likes of PR corporations like WPP (PR conglomerate and think tank and employer of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson ). She opened the pre crime division of the SMC Japan to counter “illegal rumour”, though this branch of her SMC empire was to fail only a year later as some truth escaped her “science blockade” .
As most people are aware by now that there are some serious deceptions going on concerning the Japanese nuclear disaster and Fionna has been quoted as supporting the nuclear Science Media Centre lobby who says “no health implications as the dose was to low”. this SMC in Japan was supported by the Australian SMC and was further enhanced by the UK SMC “experts.. The problem occurred as the news of the thyroid cancers in Fukushima began their steady upward rise.. The Japan SMC was abandoned and now lies idle as far as its public presence is concerned. However Geraldine Thomas (imperial College Uni. and Chernobyl Tissue bank)was recently quoted once again saying ther is no health effects and that the sudden rash of thyroids cancers are not proved to be from radiation. And this is good balanced science? So, maybe Fionna still has a contract in Japan or the Empire of SMC has left licking its wounds in this case. Proving the adage that ” THE TRUTH CAN HURT”
Still supporting the Japanese in an open way is good old BBC favourite, Geraldine Thomas and the small cohort of UK nuclear advisors giving an outdated and simplistic approach to explaining nuclear events such as Fukushima.
The SMC`s and the chosen ones of the science community will not allow other points of view concerning the dose arguments that are raging across the planet. They also spread rumours to usurp any faults in their corporate backed view of radiation risk assessments. A good example of this is attacks on the likes of independent researcher and scientist Prof. Chris Busby, or even attacking a huge research paper such as the New York Academy of Science (NYAS) released “http://www.globalresearch.ca/chernobyl-consequences-of-the-catastrophe-for-people-and-the-environment/17571“
The NYAS book review was taken up by the BBC and their SMC friends and a rumour was spread that the book (a research of Chernobyl of staggering importance to the dose argument) was flawed and not reliable. This was an outright lie perpetrated by science “experts” from the BBC then onto the rest of the media. Dr Yablakovs book will NOT be seen in any of the 3 UNSCEAR meetings set for October 2013. No balanced research allowed there.
Below are some links and quotes. There is also some critiques of the SMC and Fionna Fox. Also, there is links to the impact of SMC`s on science journalism (and its not a good effect)
More on the BBC as i connect the dots. I will be posting more on the above issues in detail in the near future.
Here are some of my preliminary findings on the dodgy global Science Media Centres/Centers
https://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/11/fukushima-science-media-centres-and-their-part-in-corrupting-truth/Japanese part translated
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth. 福島－科学Ｍｅｄｉａセンターとその腐敗してしまった真実について
I dont know why i would want to connect Ashursts with Imperial college University.. hmmm??? watch for the rabbit hole here https://nuclear-news.net/?s=imperial+college+university 🙂
And heres the connection
Ashurst advises Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine on £140 million rights issue and placing of warrants
Ashurst is advising Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine as a major shareholder of Imperial Innovations Group on a £140 million rights issue and issue of warrants by Imperial Innovations Group. Imperial College London of Science, Technology and Medicine was issued with warrants to subscribe for new convertible shares in consideration of the undertaking not to take up rights under the rights issue.
J.P. Morgan Cazenove placed the whole of the warrants allocated to the College with Invesco, another major shareholder of Imperial Innovations Group plc.
The Ashurst team was led by corporate partner Anthony Clare, assisted by associate Karin Kirschner.
Mayer Brown International LLP advised Imperial Innovations Group plc and Macfarlanes LLP advised J.P. Morgan Cazenove.
Hey!! Christina, I think Ashurst are being paid by someone to nobble your blog!! 😦
And this from a survivor from the Australian Thought Crime Purge, a dedicated independent science journalist cutie called Christina MacPherson 🙂 makes some relevant points.
https://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/26/sloppy-science-writing-in-australias-media/
And finally some of the links and articles that inspired me to put together this article.. sorry about the clutter but i am too busy to tweak.. please feel free to change, reblog or disseminate in any way.. i am a great believer in free crowd sourced news, so feel free to improve, correct or copy… The public is being fooled by the science and its up to us bloggers to unfool the public.. imo.. Arclight2011
Media blackouts and the health risks of GM food exposed
September 17th, 2013
The Mail, Telegraph and Financial Times were the only papers to publish the story in their print editions. According to our source, who wished to remain anonymous, the BBC had two programmes lined up to cover the study on the day it went public but mysteriously pulled the broadcasts.
Fiona Fox, chief executive of the pro-GM Science Media Centre (SMC), which receives funding from biotech companies including Monsanto, publicly claimed credit for killing media coverage of Séralini’s work in the UK.1 The SMC enjoys an exceptionally cosy relationship with the broadcaster: it has pocketed cash from BBC Worldwide and BBC staff are on both its advisory board and board of trustees. Fox has her own BBC blog.
http://gmoseralini.org/media-blackouts-and-the-health-risks-of-gm-food-exposed/
17 June 2013
By Sandy Starr
Appeared in BioNews 709
The director of the Science Media Centre (SMC), a charity that seeks to improve public trust in science, has been awarded an OBE. Fiona Fox, who has been given the award for services to science, founded the SMC in 2002 following a House of Lords report that called for better communication between scientists and the media.
http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_313767.asp
and another version of the OBE story
Genocide-denying director of the SMC awarded an OBE
More rabbit hole past this point…… you have been warned…
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth. 福島－科学Ｍｅｄｉａセンターとその腐敗してしまった真実について
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth. 福島－科学Ｍｅｄｉａセンターとその腐敗してしまった真実について
“they could rely on the supply of press releases from the Australian SMC so that their general reporters could write the science news”.
“一般のレポーターたちが科学ニュース記事をかけるぐらい十分な情報がオーストラリアSMCからの広報から得られるため、だという。”
“Science PR was increasing and independent science journalism was decreasing.”
“科学の報道発表は増えてきているが、独立した科学ジャーナリストが減っている。”
https://nuclear-news.net/2013/07/11/fukushima-science-media-centres-and-their-part-in-corrupting-truth/
(Editor’s note)
Science Media Centre of Japan has been inactive since 12/3/13. Last article on Fukushima disaster was June 2012.
Fukushima – Science Media Centres and their part in corrupting truth..
Posted by nuclear-news.net
11 July 2013
By arclight2011part2
I would like to bring to your attention the mechanism by which science journalism is being undermined.. It may explain George Monbiot`s conversion to the nuclear industry among other things. This mechanism is the Science Media Centers of the world and the nuclear industry driven PR machine
There is growing evidence that the existence of SMCs is also encouraging news organizations to downgrade science reporters. Recently the newspaper The Australian sacked its science reporter, Leigh Dayton. The reason she was given by the editors was..
“they could rely on the supply of press releases from the Australian SMC so that their general reporters could write the science news”. [Ed: Leigh Dayton denies having said this and we are currently endeavouring to check with the author of the Columbia Journalism Review paper as to the veracity or otherwise of the above statement.]
A large empirical study carried out recently by Andy Williams of Cardiff University, UK also confirmed that..
Science PR was increasing and independent science journalism was decreasing.
Fiona Fox and Connie St. Louis http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/science_media_centers_the_pres.php?page=4
In the UK for some time the independent scientist has been squeezed out of the media and a more pro- industry message is being given to journalists/media outlets, who do not have such a good grip of the full impact of a nuclear disaster.
The UK security services such as MI5 and MI6 have been targeting effective independent scientists and researchers such as Chris Busby, Richard Bramhall and John Large because of their negative reporting on certain aspects of the nuclear industry. the most vicious of which was directed at Chris Busby during the UK nuclear test veterans case where he was replaced with Prof Paddy Regan at the last minute who promptly lost the rest of the cases for the veterans. Richard Bramhall had his email blocked and John Larges web site was hacked.This is just a quick sample of security services interference and a book could be wrote on this subject alone.
With this as a backdrop to the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster and the way that it was handled by the media and PR companies. The SMC model was used to get a grip of the information. NGO`s such as CRIIRAD and ACRO did mange some testing of the environment but their role was limited by agreement, by the Japanese government. This can be seen in the way that Greenpeace was warned away very publicly from testing the surrounding waters to the Daichi nuclear site.
Any other scientists such as Chris Busby were stopped from setting up a laboratory to monitor the contamination efficiently and indeed in the case of Chris Busby, a smear campaign was begun by media outlets around the world. Other Japanese independent scientists and health professionals (with experience of Chernobyl) were sidelined by the press and academic worlds.
The Japanese government stopped a genetic test (a simple blood sample) that could tell if the person had damage from ionising radiation. This test needs to be done within three years (earlier for more accurate results) but the Japanese government has blocked it to mitigate the costs to the Insurance and nuclear industries. The Japanese government released only this year that they could not use this test because there needs to be a moral issues debate (the problem of finding illegitamate children was given as a reason why the tests were not done). The only reason that the Japanese government released that statement was because a Scientist had told everyone about the test on an NHK news broadcast (without consulting with the Japanese SMC)
At Fukushima, no physical health effects of radiation have been observed among the general public and effects on workers have been far lower than those at Chernobyl. The INES was meant to aid public understanding of nuclear safety but has, in fact, made it more confused. The INES should be substantially modified or scrapped.
Dr Don Higson http://smc-japan.org/eng/archives/1434
Dr Higson feels he can give advise on health effects though he was wrong on that point but continues to say that the INES should be scrapped even though there is comparable if not more health issue effects being reported even though the Japanese health system is tightly controlled by the government. This shows how the system can be corrupted with bad science and bad viewpoints with no stop checks along the way.. This statement is the last post on the Japanese SMC site with no retraction of the inaccuracies and ommissions..
In fact the combined use of SMC`s throughout the globe has hugely helped the nuclear industry out and got Tepco and others out of paying huge compensation to those effected worst by the disaster. To prove a point on the use of the Japanese SMC to mitigate this disaster and nothing else, we can see that the last entry into the Japanese SMC was in 09/03/2012 . With no mention of the dire results of the Thyroid checks that had been carried out on 150,000 children out of approx 350,000 children who may have been hit by the initial plumes (This is denied in the world of the SMC stating not enough evidence)
A common theme is to concentrate on the psychological aspects of the disaster and make that the main concern. With some blatant lies of course…
On the Fukushima site today:The four damaged reactors are in a stable cold shutdown state, cooled by water circulated through a treatment plant. Site clean-up, including removal of radioactive rubble, continues. A mid and long-term roadmap for the decommissioning of units 1-4 was issued in December 2011. Phase 1 prepares for the removal of spent fuel from the cooling ponds to commence by 2013. Phase 2 prepares for the removal of fuel debris from the reactor core to commence within 10 years. The final phase completes the decommissioning of the reactors in 30-40 years.There are still over 100,000 people evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture. In the areas within the 20km evacuation zone with an annual radiation dose of <20mSv/year, it is expected that people will be allowed to return in March 2012. For higher radiation areas, remediation is required before restrictions are lifted by perhaps 2014.Tony Irwin 2012 http://smc-japan.org/eng/archives/1441
Maybe one way for the SMCs to improve their service during such crises would be to ask the scientists offering comments to also make conflict of interest disclosures. It may, in fact, not be a bad idea to do that with all SMC activities.
Susannah Eliott, Peter Griffin, and Kate Kelland http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/science_media_centers_the_pres_1.php?page=4
I just wanted to introduce you to this side of the science “debate” and how the science is corrupted and biased without independent scientist to keep a check and balance. I was surprised to see the Australian SMC coming out in strength to ignore the plight of the children of Fukushima and save the nuclear industry from a well deserved collapse.
Here is an article i posted last year that might be relevent
Not to mention the extreme decades long MOX contracts that were signed that will force the Japanese government to re start the reactors.. imo [Arclight2011part2]
Wade Allison tries to push #nuclear power on #Ireland #Fukushima #Chernobyl #ScienceMediaCentre
That world leaders are recognising climate change and have responded with a move towards renewable energy sources should be viewed as positive.
A reduction in carbon emissions, to meet the Paris agreement’s goals, by relying on the nuclear industry, is an abysmal trade-off, considering its disastrous environmental record.
Radioactive waste is a byproduct of the nuclear industry. As you correctly indicate, (Wade Allison, Irish Examiner, June 25) nuclear processes are part of nature, but these natural processes resist being hurried.
Waste takes years to decay. Plutonium has a half-life of about 24,000 years. Where does this not-so-natural waste go?
Low-level waste from hospitals is incinerated before land burial. Waste from reactor decommissioning is deposited in geological repositories.
Waste from nuclear reactors is highly radioactive, often hot, and must be stored in a controlled environment.
At the Sellafield site in the UK, where the stockpiling of nuclear waste has been plagued with leaks, spent nuclear fuel is imported and reprocessed (recycled).
Waste arising from this is highly radioactive, must be encased in glass, and be regularly monitored.
Even with best practice management, monitoring this waste will continue for indefinite years and costs will rise as the stockpiles grow.
A common practice in the nuclear industry is the dumping of low-level nuclear waste into the sea. It is claimed by Greenpeace that the spent-fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague, in northern France, dumps “1m litres of liquid radioactive waste per day” into the ocean. The long-term impact of such dumping remains to be seen.
While population displacement to facilitate hydroelectric schemes is unfortunate, relocation because of radioactive fallout is a tragedy.
The Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 scattered 400 times more radioactive material into the Earth’s atmosphere than did the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The Chernobyl exclusion zone, measuring 2,600sq km (1,004sq miles), is one of the most contaminated areas in the world.
It is larger than Co Wexford, where, in the late 1970s, the Irish government abandoned plans to develop a nuclear plant at Carnsore Point, following opposition and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US, in 1979. The latter’s clean-up operation lasted 12 years and cost $1bn. By 2014, the price for decommissioning at Sellafield had reached £70bn.
However, a nuclear waste clean-up is a contradiction in terms. Contaminated material is simply moved to someone else’s backyard.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan, in 2011, is an ongoing disaster. In February, 2017, six years post-nuclear meltdown, it was reported that radiation levels at the plant were at “unimaginable levels”, following the discovery of new fuel leaks.
Professor Allison asserts that “Nuclear is for life”. Yes, it is. As he is so keen to embrace it, would he be happy take home a share of the industry’s waste?
Allison’s argument that we “must move beyond radiation phobia and accept more relaxed, evidence-based nuclear regulations” is a tall order, considering industry revelations, like the falsification of quality assurance data at Sellafield’s Mox Demonstration facility in 1999.
Undeniably, energy security comes at a cost. For nuclear energy, this is a very long-term mortgage, as both fuel and waste stockpiles create their own health-and-security risks.
There is no denying the contribution that radiation has made to medicine, but physicist Marie Curie, who did pioneering work on radioactivity, died from prolonged exposure to it.
Nuclear energy may look clean, but it is not. The spectre of artificial radioactivity from the nuclear industry looms large in our atmosphere.
Ireland has no room for stockpiles of nuclear waste, nor for the mishaps that have plagued the nuclear industry. Why jeopardise a lucrative tourism industry (€5bn a year) or our food-and-drinks industry (€12bn a year) by poisoning our landscape?
It’s not surprising that countries are refusing to invest in new nuclear plants, apart from those kowtowing to lobbyists with vested interests. Contrary to Wade Allison’s report, nuclear power seems unlikely to be popular tomorrow, given the legacy of waste it bestows on future generations.
Aidan J Collins MA
Brookville Park
Malahide Road
Artane
Dublin 5
Source of article; https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/readers-blog-nuclear-energy-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-853590.html
(Note from Arclight2011 – More information from this blog on Prof Wade Allison https://nuclear-news.net/?s=Wade+Allison )
AND
The Economist: Oxford Professor Says OK to Raise Annual Dose Limit by 1000 Times for the Japanese, But the Reporter Reluctant to Inhale
Dr. Wade Allison is professor emeritus of physics (particle physics) at Oxford University. The event that the Economist’s reporter refers to in the article must be the talk given at American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) on October 3, where the professor, along with another researcher, presented the strong case that the radiation exposure below 100 millisieverts per year was not a problem, if one only gets rid of the unreasonable fear of radiation. He also says the current food regulation, evacuation regulation are “unreasonable” and should be relaxed significantly.
Here’s the screen capture of a page from his presentation slides he used in the ACCJ talk:
Arevamirpal wrote: “Why did the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan invite Professor Allison? What was the purpose? Does anyone know?”
That’s the good question!
I did look in this Allison’s biography.
He’s not a genetician, didn’t work on DNA, he is not a physician either, nor a statistician… His research field is neutrinos (what are these particules?, where are they coming from the sun?, how fast they are, etc.) It’s very theorical physic. Nothing to do with radiations and their effect on human health.
So, this so-called “expert” in nothing of an expert when it’s come to radiations and human health.
So why did he take an interest for this topic?
If you have a look on this page, where he presents his firsts results on neutrinos, you can see who are his sponsors (because you can’t work on neutrinos with only a computer, a microscope and a few tests tubes; it’s costs a lot of big money):
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Ontario Power Generation, Agra-Monenco/Canatom Limited, CVD Manufacturing Inc.
All these companies are in nuclear power.So, you take the money, and you have to be grateful. You come in Japan (interesting that it’s the chamber of commerce who organized the conference) and you say what your sponsors want you to say. (may be they did the slides).
As you are a scientist, in physics, and from Oxford on top of that, your titles will impress M. Everyman, and the lie has a chance to be swallowed.But if Mr Allison is an expert in neutrinos, he is nothing but a fraud when discussing human health and radiations.
The question is: has this man something like a conscience, or neutrinos and money did eat all was left of it?
How the science of radiation protection was subverted to protect nuclear bombs and nuclear power
From Richard Bramhall
Low Level Radiation Campaign
This article was originally written for Radioactive Times in 2008. I didn’t set out to write the whole history of radiation protection – just to highlight the turning point when the bogus concept of absorbed dose was foisted on the world.
The nonsense of Absorbed Dose
Absorbed doses of ionising radiation are defined as an average of the energy that is transferred into large volumes of body tissue. This approach is valid for considering external exposures, like X-rays or natural gamma (cosmic rays) but not for situations where radioactive substances inside the body irradiate microscopic volume of tissue selectively. Particles of Uranium and Plutonium are examples; the range of their alpha emissions is so tiny that all the energy is concentrated into a few hundred cells. Some call this kind of situation “pinpoint radiation”. Using absorbed dose to assess the potential health damage is like a doctor examining a child whose skin is covered with small red marks.
Now look, Mrs. Smith, I’m a doctor and I’m telling you even if your lodger does stub out his cigarette on little Nelly’s tummy there’s no problem because she absorbs very little energy from it. You give her a far bigger dose when you put in her a nice warm bath.
The trick was pulled in the depths of World War 2, subverting the science of radiation protection in order to protect the Manhattan Project and the A-bomb; it has served to protect the nuclear industry ever since.
Radium autopsies and internal risk standards
Until the 1920s the main focus of radiation protection was external X-rays, but the Radium dial painters’ scandal made it obvious that internal effects needed specific investigation. This led to new standards determined by looking at the actual effects of radium in the dissected tissues of people.
Radium is produced by the radioactive decay of natural Uranium. Its own radioactive decay emits alpha particles. Unlike X-rays and gamma rays, alphas have very little penetrating power so they are only hazardous once they’re inside the body. Even then they don’t travel far but the downside is that all their energy is deposited in a very small volume of cells.
From the earliest years of the 20th century luminous Radium paint was applied to the faces of clocks, watches and compasses to make them glow in the dark. World War 1 boosted demand and through the following decades hundreds of girls and women were employed to paint dials and pointers with various brands of paint – Undark, Luna and Marvelite. They would routinely put the tips of their paint brushes between their lips to obtain a fine point for the trickier numerals. By 1923 it was clear that the Radium they thus ingested was causing dreadful, agonising and frequently fatal illnesses.
Radium mostly lodges in bone, so the diseases affected the blood-forming function of the women’s bone marrow, leading to anaemia. Those with higher body burdens had ulcers and their bones were weakened to the point where vertebrae collapsed and legs would break spontaneously. The first deaths directly attributed to Radium Necrosis came in 1925. The inventor of the Undark brand died like his workers, his bone marrow destroyed and his hands, mouth and jaw bones eaten away. Court cases, compensation payments and improved workplace practices followed (a ban on licking brushes was the first) but for a decade and a half there were no mandatory exposure limits.
By 1941 America was once more tooling up for industrialised warfare and the government was ordering large numbers of luminized instruments. By that time the global total of Radium extracted from the earth’s crust was only 1.5 kilograms but, already, the deaths of more than a hundred people were attributable to its processing and use. Officials insisted that safety standards be devised, including a tolerance limit for internal Radium. A committee of the National Bureau of Standards looked to a post mortem study of Radium dial painters and people who had been exposed to Radium through medical treatments. They saw that there were detectable injuries in all the bodies which contained a total of 1.2 micrograms of Radium but no injuries were discernible in those containing 0.5 micrograms or less. The committee settled on 0.1 micrograms as a cut-off. The history books show they knew this was a highly subjective stab in the dark.
Since Radium decays to Radon gas officials were able to use Radon as an indicator for metering. From then on, Radium workers were required to breathe into an ion chamber which detected the radioactive decays of Radon and its own daughter, Polonium. An immediate change of occupation was recommended as soon as the level indicated that a worker’s body contained more than 0.1 micrograms of Radium.
Plutonium takes centre stage
World War 2 was midwife to the principle of nuclear fission, a completely novel substance – Plutonium – and the possibility of a Plutonium-powered bomb. The Manhattan Project was set up to make Plutonium for the bomb in secret and in near total ignorance of its effects on health. It was known to be an alpha emitter so, for expediency, the standards for Radium were extended to Plutonium, modified by animal experiments comparing the effects of the two substances.
All this – both the Radium standard and the Plutonium standard derived from it – was primitive science which had no way of detecting subtle lesions and cancers which may take decades to appear. The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA was still a decade away and for another 50 years no-one suspected the existence of epigenetic effects (genomic instability and the bystander effect). So the safety standards were unlikely to reflect long-term health effects but they did have the huge philosophical advantage of being rooted in reality; the Radium researchers had followed the essentially scientific principle of looking for a relationship between cause and effect. Maybe this was because they were medical practitioners, campaigners for workers’ rights and newspapers eager for the human interest angle on any story. Maybe their investigation enjoyed some liberty because the dial painting industry was owned privately, rather than by any government, and because at that time the fate of the “free” world did not seem to hang on the outcome.
Exit Medicine, stage left; Enter Health Physics, stage right
By 1944 everything had changed. Plutonium was being produced in significant amounts and any potential it might have to kill its own workforce now affected a top-level policy funded by a bottomless budget with the imperative of building the bomb before Stalin could. More crucially for the scientific principles of radiological safety, physicians were no longer in charge, but physicists.
The agent of change was a British physicist, Herbert Parker, head of radiation protection at the Manhattan Project. His earlier career in British hospitals had made him familiar with X-rays and a kind of therapy that used Radium as an external source, confining it in tubes and placing it carefully to irradiate cancerous tissues. (This medical application had been tried as early as 1904, only six years after Radium was discovered. In marked contrast to the dial painters’ problems, it didn’t involve Radium becoming inextricably mingled with a patient’s bones.) Parker had a physics-based view; radiation was a single phenomenon, whether it came from an X-ray machine or a speck of Plutonium. As with light, where the physicist isn’t too interested in whether the source is a light bulb or the sun, Parker was concerned with how much energy the radiation delivered to the tissue of interest. The language here is of ergs, from the Greek for work. It is defined in dynes, the Greek for force; the units are physical – movement, velocity, grammes of mass, centimetres of length, seconds of time.
Parker was one of the first to call himself a Health Physicist. In his world there was no call for a bedside manner.
The internal/external Switcheroo: Act 1
Using his physicist’s approach, Parker shifted the focus from direct investigation of the effects of specific substances onto a new concept – radiation dose – which he could apply to radiation from any source and all sources, providing a way to assess workers’ total exposure to all the novel nuclides the Manhattan Project was now creating. He defined a unit of dose in ergs per gramme of tissue and called it the Roentgen Equivalent Physical, or rep. Its very name betrays the mindset; Wilhelm Roentgen was the discoverer of X-rays (for a long time they were called Roentgen rays). The source of X-rays is always outside the body, so we can see the understanding of dose, and hence risk, was now to be based on an external paradigm.
The first limit for Plutonium in the body based on Parker’s dose model was set at 0.01 reps per day, a quantity which exactly matched the energy deposition from the old tolerance limit of 0.1 microgramme of Radium. No change there then. What did change was that instead of the empirical scientific inquiry based on actual tissue damage and instead of the tentative subjectivity of the 1941 Standards Bureau Committee’s decision on a Radium level, the new model gave an impression of mathematical precision, certainty and universal applicability. This was the new, square-jawed and confident nuclear era where bombs of unimaginable power would biff the Red Menace into oblivion and unlimited atomic energy would fuel everything in a world of peace and plenty.
Internal/external Switcheroo: Act 2
Any risk model needs two types of data – for exposure and for effect. Unfortunately, there were no reliable data even for X-rays despite 50 years’ experience. There was too much variability in the machines and the conditions in which they were used; doses were largely unknowable and many of the long-term effects had yet to emerge. But after 1945 the surviving people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided the authorities with a fresh opportunity. Funded and controlled by America, data on the survivors’ health was gathered (as it still is) in what have become known as the Life Span Studies or LSS.
A full analysis of the flaws in the LSS is beyond me. As far as studying internal radioactivity is concerned the flaw is fatal; the control population providing the base-line of expected rates of disease, to be compared with disease in the exposed population, was recruited from the bombed cities themselves – they had either been outside the city when the bomb fell, or in some other way were shielded from the flash of the explosion. The “exposed” population consisted of people who had been in the open and so received a large dose of external gamma rays. But both groups ingested and inhaled just as much fallout as each other, so the LSS are totally silent on internal radiation. The only difference between them was the external irradiation. LSS nevertheless is the basis of radiation protection standards all over the world to this day for both external and internal.
Internal/external Switcheroo: Act 3
The LSS were not begun until 1950 (another flaw, obviously, because by then many of the most susceptible people had died) but already, in 1948, America’s Atomic Energy Commission had pressed the National Council for Radiation Protection (NCRP) to develop safety standards for the growing nuclear industry. An especial concern was the quantity of novel elements which, being alpha emitters, would present internal hazards. Separate sub-committees addressed internal and external radiation. The external sub-committee completed its work quite quickly but the other was slowed down by the many complexities of internal contamination. The problem is that physicists don’t have much clue about where radioactive elements go once they are inside the body, how long they stay there or what biological damage they’re doing. Impatient with the delays, NCRP’s Executive closed down the internal committee in 1951 and stretched the report of the external committee to cover internal radiation. Karl Z. Morgan, chair of the internal radioactivity sub-committee, refused to agree that internal could be dealt with like external. For the rest of his life he was a critic of official radiological protection bodies –
I feel like a father who is ashamed of his children.
Internal/external Switcheroo: Act 4
In 1950, American influence revived the International X-ray and Radium Protection Committee (IXRPC), which had been dormant during the war. In fact only two of its members were still alive and one of those was an American who was Chairman of the American NCRP. But needs must, and an international body would probably look more credible than a unilateral American one, so IXRPC was reborn as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). In reality ICRP was just an overseas branch of the NCRP and in 1953 it adopted the NCRP report wholesale.
Epilogue
An epilogue is a short speech at the end of a play. In the case of this drama it’s hard to be brief. I’ll give two snapshots – one is global, the other is a family tragedy.
Chernobyl
In 1986 the accident at Chernobyl spread fallout round the whole planet and millions of people inhaled and ingested it. Thousands of published reports from Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, Greece, Germany, Britain, and even as far west as the Californian coast show a wide range of post-accident health effects not predicted by ICRP’s model. In 2007 ICRP adopted new Recommendations in which there is a single reference to one study of Chernobyl. It’s a paper on thyroid cancer. They cite it for the sole purpose of establishing that it’s so hard to be sure what doses the patients had got from the fallout that the accident can tell us nothing useful. ICRP clings so hard to the dogma of dose that they are willing to rob the human race of the chance to learn about the results of the worst ever reactor accident (I wrote this before Fukushima).
Malcolm Pattinson
This is one among millions of similar stories, but enough detailed information has leaked out to let us learn from it.
In May 2007 The Guardian (linked here or here) and The Times carried reports of a Cumbrian woman’s shock at finding out what had happened to her father 36 years earlier.
Angela Christie’s father, Malcolm Pattinson, died of leukaemia in 1971. He was 36 years old and he worked at Sellafield. Or he had worked there; the Times reported that by the time he died he had been off work for 18 months because his wife feared for his health. As soon as he was dead his employers made frantic efforts to obtain organs and bones from his body. The local coroner, doctors and solicitors were involved but the family was neither consulted nor informed. In 1979, after a long battle during which the employers admitted liability, an out-of-court settlement brought Mr. Pattinson’s widow and daughters compensation payments variously reported as £52000 and £67000.
All this happened when Malcolm’s daughter Angela was in her teens. She grew up and went to work at Sellafield like her father. She married and had three children of her own. Then she read in a newspaper that her father had been one of many men in the industry whose organs had been harvested for radiological research. She asked for the legal papers and received several boxes full.
They’re quite shocking, which may indicate why Mr Pattinson’s employers were so interested in snatching his body parts. His liver contained 673 times as much Plutonium as the average for a sample of Cumbrians who had not worked in the nuclear industry and his lungs had well over 7000 times as much. His liver had 53 times the amount of Plutonium found in the most contaminated of the nuclear workers in other reports and his lungs had 42 times as much. Mr. Pattinson’s body burden was far greater than any other worker data I have seen. I conclude that he had either been involved in an accident or had been working in an unacceptably dirty environment. Either would be a scandal, but the far wider scandal is that the industry and the government would not see even those monstrous levels as a likely cause of his death.
From the data published in the Guardian I calculated the radiation dose Mr. Pattinson received from his body burden of Plutonium. Using the same methods as the ICRP I worked out the annual dose at 26 milliSieverts. That’s about ten times the usual (bogus) yardstick of natural background but it would have been nothing very remarkable in the early 1970s. Even today, when standards are more cautious, employers would still not be breaking the law by exposing a worker to such a dose so long as it wasn’t for more than one year in five.
ICRP’s risk estimates would not predict that a 26mSv dose would cause Mr. Pattinson’s leukaemia, in just the same way as they do not predict the cluster of childhood leukaemia at Seascale, next door to Sellafield — the doses are far too low. According to ICRP, if Mr. Pattinson was going to die of any cancer, the chance that it would be caused by the Plutonium in his body was only 1.3 in a 1000.
To the person in the street the idea that fatal leukaemia in a young man is 770 times more likely to be caused by bad luck, bad genes, bad diet, smoking, a virus or an act of God than by the acts of an employer who contaminated him heavily with a bone-seeking, alpha-emitting radionuclide may seem insane. It is insane. It is insane in the way Dr. Strangelove was insane; the logic is impeccable but the theoretical premises are wrong. The good news is that growing numbers of scientists are recognising that ICRP is in error. These include Jack Valentin, the man who recently retired as ICRP’s Scientific Secretary.
Richard Bramhall
Low Level Radiation Campaign
Source: http://www.llrc.org/switcheroo.htm
Lonnie Clark and Shaun McGee on nuclear media reporting in a Post Truth society
I was interviewed by Lonnie Clark from UCTV, Age of Fission on Science media Journalism in a post truth society of click-bait and emotive science based news. I explain how bloggers and amateur journalists, using well sourced data can make a change to the narrative often given out in a PR guided news cycle and make a difference.
We discuss tactics for activists and I comment on how and what caused me to get into Science based Journalism after the BP Gulf oil and Fukushima disasters.
In the Interview I explain how 2 nuclear related stories that the Main Stream “Post Truth” Media have failed to report on correctly. In fact the reportage of these stories is the complete opposite of the facts!
Interview on this You tube channel 56.00 mins;
Misunderstanding science papers and corporate spin
The first article we discussed was from ScienceDaily.com who reported on an anniversary of Chernobyl that wildlife was thriving and in fact that wildlife was adapting to radiation (often called the Hormesis). In my report we showed how wrong they were by just simply contacting the author of the science paper (Prof T. Mousseau ) and posting his reply that clarified his study that was so badly reported on ScienceDaily and their story was picked up by many news outlets;
How to Spin a radioactive bird during Chernobyl remembrance day using Google and Sciencedaily.com
SNIP
“Hopefully there will be some more comprehensive coverage of this latest
paper that includes some discussion of the broader picture that includes
the context for how such “positive” responses have evolved and how they
are not unexpected given the intensity of “unnatural” selection (i.e.
Negative effects) imposed by the radioactive contaminants in the area.”
END SNIP
And indeed, a couple of years later Prof T. Mousseau clarified this further by explaining that the antioxidants that were utilised by the small group of birds would stop them evolving in such a scenario as Global warming here in this audio interview and article;
Life after Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters with Prof. T. Mousseau
SNIP
His earlier study on birds with Black pigment showed that some resilience in a small amount of bird species was due to them using antioxidants to protect from genetic damage but at some cost. This might limit the lower antioxidant levels left in these birds might cause problems for them to find mates and deal with environmental changes (such as climate change)
“Organisms can use these antioxidants to the mutational load OR use it to advertise to a mate or defend itself against some other diseases but there is this ultimate trade off that limits the success in one way or another”
Thermal regulation might be another factor due to this imbalance he said.
END SNIP
Link to the 2016 interview with Prof Mousseau here;
Professor Tsude and his thyroid study attacked but facts clarified
The second article I discussed was concerning the issue of Thyroid Cancers in Fukushima Prefecture.This came about as I was arguing in the comments section of Japan today with three Nuclear Health Physicists whether or not radiation was causing the increasing and statistically significant increases in Childrens Thyroid cancers. Eventually they came up with a number of problems with the meta-analysis done by Prof. Tsude, so I contacted the Professor with an email and the points they had made and he quickly contacted me back to refute their claims of innacuracys. In the interview I describe how this occurred and also how such questioning would shorten the peer review process, thus, helping the victims of the disaster from biased viewpoints that would delay the nuclear accident victims getting the proper support and compensation they deserves. Here is the article I did documenting that;
SNIP
[EDITORS NOTE; Prof. G Thomas did not contact Prof Toshihide Tsude
but made her claim that she cast doubt on the study? [Sam McGill said on Japan Times comments (link below) “…In any case, Gerry Thomas – who doesn’t work for the Science Media Centre – isn’t a nuclear engineer anyway. She focuses on health and radiation. So you’ve got that criticism wrong too. And it’s not just Gerry Thomas who’s cast doubt on Tsuda’s study…..]]
END SNIP
Confirming the Toshihide Tsuda Thyroid study findings in Fukushima – Answering the nuclear lobby’s questions!
The video clips are from my interview with Lonnie on the you tube video are from the first Sherlock Holmes 1920`s silent movie and part of a Babe Ruth 1920`s silent movie.
Toxic debates like the hinkley nuclear one need social science input
by opening up this kind of wider discussion, social science can undertake its trickiest – but arguably most useful – task in any controversy. The stakes in this particular case transcend nuclear debates alone – and raise questions about the overall health of British democracy.
Hinkley C shows the value of social science in the most toxic public debates
Social science can help explain why people disagree over controversial technologies and – most importantly – surface hidden assumptions, Guardian, Andy Stirling and Phil Johnstone, 24 Oct 16, t’s been another turbulent month in the long-running saga over the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Having looked as if she might be contemplating a rethink, Theresa May unveiled an apparently decisive approval just before the Conservative Party conference. But with longstanding issues still unaddressed– and new problems emerging even since the PM’s announcement – the debate over Hinkley is far from over…….
For powerful interests in any setting, social research can also play a useful role in helping to justify, present or implement favoured policies. Here, social science can be part of the closing down of debate – helpfully enabling political attention to move on.
But what if, on deeper reflection, powerfully-backed policies are a bad idea (perhaps as with the Hinkley decision? History is replete with examples – like asbestos, heavy metals, carcinogenic pesticides, chlorine bleaches, toxic solvents and ozone depleting chemicals – where it only emerged in retrospect that the pictures being given of “sound science” or the “evidence base” at the time were unduly shaped by vested interests or constrained imaginations.
It is here that social science can play a further crucial role: helping to open up policy debates where they are being prematurely “locked-in”. This focuses less on society as a target for policymaking, and more on the processes of policymaking themselves. The production and interpretation of evidence is, after all, as much a social phenomenon as public attitudes or political mobilisation.
It is a striking feature of the Hinkley example that even the government’s own evidence base is strikingly damning. The assessment of value for money itself acknowledges Hinkley C to be more expensive than other low carbon energy strategies. And the picture in other official sources is even more negative. With nuclear costs rising and renewable costs falling – and a worldwide turn towards wind and solar power – global trends compound the picture.
With the UK enjoying the best renewable energy resource in Europe and holding a competitive advantage in offshore industries, industrial policy arguments are also manifestly stronger for renewables. The same applies to prospective jobs. Compared to nuclear safety and security challenges, renewables are less vulnerable. And simplistic “baseload” arguments are shown by numerous official reports to be superseded by technology – and repudiated even by the National Grid. So the officially-stated reasons for nuclear enthusiasm simply don’t stack up………
our research suggests there is a further – seriously neglected – factor that may underlie the intense attachment of successive UK governments to civil nuclear power. This involves parallel UK commitments to maintain nuclear submarine capabilities. Without the cover provided by lower-tier contracts in civil nuclear construction, the diminished UK nuclear manufacturing sector would simply not be able to build these formidable technological artefacts. Nor could they easily be operated without civil infrastructures for nuclear research, design, training, maintenance and regulation.
So a consequence of withdrawing from nuclear power might also be very serious for a particular version of British identity – especially in the coming post-Brexit era. It is nuclear military prowess that supposedly allows the UK to “punch above its weight” on the world stage. Yet, although this rationale for continued UK nuclear commitments is clearly documented on the military side, it is unmentioned anywhere in official civil nuclear policy statements – and in energy debates more widely.
What this might mean for policy is a moot point. But by opening up this kind of wider discussion, social science can undertake its trickiest – but arguably most useful – task in any controversy. The stakes in this particular case transcend nuclear debates alone – and raise questions about the overall health of British democracy.
Phil Johnstone is a research fellow and Andy Stirling is a professor of science and technology policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2016/oct/24/hinkley-c-shows-the-value-of-social-science-in-the-most-toxic-public-debates
Contradictory and confusing statements by climate science deniers
How climate science deniers can accept so many ‘impossible things’ all at once 23 September 2016 by Guest Author,
http://www.skepticalscience.com/how-deniers-accept-so-many-impossible-things-at-once.html Sometimes, climate science deniers will tell you that we can’t predict global temperatures in the future. Sometimes, they’ll say we’re heading for an ice age.
Occasionally, contrarians will say that no single weather event can prove human-caused global warming. But then they’ll point to somewhere that’s cold, claiming this disprovesclimate change.
Often, deniers will tell you that temperature records show that global warming stopped at some point around 1998. But also they’ll insist that those same temperature records can’t be relied on because Nasa and the Bureau of Meteorology are all communist corruption monkeys. Or something.
Black is also white. Round is also flat. Wrong is also right?
A new research paper published in the journal Synthese has looked at several of these contradictory arguments that get thrown around the blogosphere, the Australian Senate and the opinion pages of the (mostly) conservative media.
The paper comes with the fun and enticing title: “The Alice in Wonderland mechanics of the rejection of (climate) science: simulating coherence by conspiracism.”
Why Alice? Because, as the White Queen admitted: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The three authors, including Dr John Cook, of the University of Queensland, look at both rhetorical and scientific arguments put by deniers.
One example is the popular theme that casts “sceptics” as “dissenting heroes” who bravely oppose “political persecution and fraud”. You know, like modern-day Galileos.
But the authors write that deniers will also try and convince the public that there is no consensus among scientists about the causes of climate change (there is and it’s us). They write:
Either there is a pervasive scientific consensus in which case contrarians are indeed dissenters, or there is no consensus in which case contrarian opinions should have broad support within the scientific community and no fearless opposition to an establishment is necessary.
The authors unleash similar jujitsu-style logic on other contradictory arguments and give examples of where the same individuals have apparently argued against themselves.
One of the authors’ examples of incoherent logic comes from the Australian geologist and mining industry figure Prof Ian Plimer and his 2009 book, Heaven and Earth – a book favourably cited by the likes of the former prime minister Tony Abbott and Cardinal George Pell.
On page 278, Plimer writes that “temperature and CO2 are not connected” but, on page 411, writes that “CO2 keeps our planet warm”.
According to the authors, their examples of “incoherence” only hold together in the minds of the deniers if you apply types of glue known as “conspiracist ideation” and “identity-protective cognition”.
So what’s that all about?
Conspiracist ideation, or conspiratorial thinking, is the tendency to entertain suggestions: for example that Nasa and the Bureau of Meteorology are conspiring to deliberately manipulate temperature data just to make global warming seem worse than it really is, rather than to correct for known issues.
An example of “identity-protective cognition” in this case, the authors explain, is where people who advocate for small governments and “free markets” face a dilemma.
Accepting the scientific consensus would likely see increased levels of regulation, which challenges their identity as free-market advocates. So instead, the authors argue, the only options open are to either deny the consensus or try and discredit it.
Because cutting GHG emissions requires interventions – such as regulation or increased taxation – that interfere with laissez-faire free-market economics, people whose identity and worldview centres around free markets are particularly challenged by the findings from climate science.
Lead author Prof Stephan Lewandowsky, an expert in cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol, has written several research papers finding links between the rejection of science, “conspiracist ideation” and the belief in free market economic principles.
One argument that deniers may try with this Synthese paper is that climate scientists also contradict each other and have offered several explanations for the supposed global warming “pause” or “slowdown” (this was never really a thing).
Lewandowsky told me:
Click here to read the rest from Graham Readfearn in the Guardian
Fukushima radiation monitored by citizen science
How Citizen Science Changed the Way Fukushima Radiation is Reported, National Geographic by Ari Beser in Fulbright National Geographic Stories on February 13, 2016 Tokyo – “It appears the world-changing event didn’t change anything, and it’s disappointing,”said Pieter Franken, a researcher at Keio University in Japan (Wide Project), the MIT Media Lab (Civic Media Centre), and co-founder of Safecast, a citizen-science network dedicated to the measurement and distribution of accurate levels of radiation around the world, especially in Fukushima. “There was a chance after the disaster for humanity to innovate our thinking about energy, and that doesn’t seem like it’s happened. But what we can change is the way we measure the environment around us.”
Franken and his founding partners found a way to turn their email chain, spurred by the tsunami, into Safecast; an open-source network that allows everyday people to contribute to radiation-monitoring……….
Since their first tour of Koriyama, with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Safecast’s team of volunteers have developed the bGeigie handheld radiation monitor, that anyone can buy on Amazon.com and construct with suggested instructions available online. So far over 350 users have contributed 41 million readings, using around a thousand fixed, mobile, and crowd-sourced devices.
According to Franken, “We’re working with communities to install these sensors in people’s neighborhoods. We’re financed by donations only. We get donations so we put together a plan, volunteers provide space, and Internet access, and agree that the data collected are public.
“What we’ve come to determine in Fukushima is that radiation levels are spotty. They can vary from street corner to street corner. We’ve also been able to determine that the levels over the last five years have reduced, partly because of half life of cesium, and because of environmental factors. We’ve also seen an increase in official government data being released in a similar style to Safecast’s drive-by method versus spot checking.”
According to Franken, “There is no safe dose of radiation as it’s debated by scientists; the higher the level, the higher the risk is that it will trigger a cancer. Though, at low levels the risk is much smaller, it is not zero. ……..
One of the biggest problems in Fukushima is the anxiety and the uncertainty that people are suffering from the incident. I think what were doing is trying to alleviate that by giving them ways to educate themselves about the problem and giving them solutions where they can be empowered to do something about it, as a opposed to just going along with the current of the crisis.” http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/13/how-citizen-science-changed-the-way-fukushima-radiation-is-reported/
1.This Month
Will $23 Billion Nuclear Bailout Cause Nuclear Fallout?
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Greta Thunberg on viral Trump-stare: – I think I was very shocked | SVT/TV 2/Skavlan
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Rapid Sea-Level Rise “Threat Multipliers” to Coastlines, Nuclear Power Plants, and Mega-Cities
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