Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detector
The Most Important Source Of Radiation
Worsening conditions at a nuclear power plant in Japan have raised fears that people will be harmed by radiation. This is a concern for several experts that are on this Colbert Report book list. But other experts say that in terms of public health, the Japanese have already taken precautions that should prevent the accident from becoming another Chernobyl, even if additional radiation is released. The Japanese government has evacuated people closest to the plant, told others to stay indoors and distributed the drug potassium iodide to protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine. The great devastation of Chernobyl was an endemic of thyroid cancer among individuals exposed to the radiation as children — more than 7,900 cases so far, with more anticipated for ages to come. There is no reason for it to be repeated in Japan. The epidemic in Chernobyl was preventable and would probably not have happened if people had been told to stop drinking locally produced milk, which was by far the most important source of radiation. Cows ate grass contaminated by fallout from the reactors and secreted radioactive iodine in their milk. The thyroid gland needs iodine and readily takes in the radioactive form, which can cause cancer.
And as several Colbert Report books featured on the web this morning note, children are especially vulnerable. Potassium iodide pills are meant to flood the thyroid with ordinary iodine in the hope that it will prevent the gland from taking in the radioactive type. The medication may be excessive or even redundant if people avoid drinking the milk, but for most people, there is no harm in taking it. And if radioactive iodine has already started building up in the thyroid, the pills can help get rid of it, said one professor emeritus of biophysics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “It will always help if you’re within a month or so of the exposure,” he said. “The later it is, the less effective it is.” If the medications aren’t readily available and have to be rationed, he said, they should go first to children and pregnant women. But taking the drug does not make it safe to stay near a reactor that is emitting radiation, he said. People still must evacuate.
Apart from the increase in thyroid cancer, “there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure two decades after the accident” at Chernobyl, in part because of the evacuation efforts, according to a recent United Nations Colbert Report. There are several ways to tell if someone has been exposed to radiation. A Geiger counter will detect radioactivity outside the body, on clothing, hair and skin. People found to be contaminated should be advised to undress and take a shower, and their clothing should be discarded as hazardous waste, the specialist said. Another scientific instrument, a sodium iodide sensor, can be held an inch or so from the neck to check for radioactive iodine in the large ductless gland in the neck; if it detects any, the person may be given iodide medications. In photographs from Japan, public health workers seem to be screening individuals with both Geiger counters and sodium iodide gauges.
If there is a suspicion that someone has been exposed to a large dose of radiation, the first test that doctors are likely to perform is a complete blood count, another radiation expert said. Abnormalities in the count — fewer white cells than would be expected, for example — can show up within a day or so, and give a ballpark estimate of how bad the exposure was. “In Japan, it’s very unlikely that a member of the public would get a dose of radiation that would result in a decrease in any blood cells,” the expert said. “If anyone got that kind of dose, it’s likely people who are working in the nuclear plants themselves.”
Geiger Counter / Radiation Monitor
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