You can't touch this

Some modern medical tests use radioactity to trace blood flow during a stress test, thyroid activity, etc. This leaves the patient mildly radioactive for 1-3 days depending on the test or procedure. Under such occasions the doctor will give the patient a card attesting that they have had a medical procedure involving a small amount of radioactive material. Don't lose this card!
You may set off alarms in the airport. Or be stopped at check points to prisons or military bases. Recently a firefighter in Connecticut was pulled over by a policeman after he set off a radioactivity detector in the state police car. The fireman was impressed,  "I had no idea the police even had devices like that." He showed his medical card to the police officer and was allowed to go instead of being held as a suspected terrorist.

A Radiant Story

“Incidentally, disturbance from cosmic background radiation is something we have all experienced. Tune your television to any channel it doesn't receive, and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this ancient remnant of the Big Bang. The next time you complain that there is nothing on, remember that you can always watch the birth of the universe.”
-Bill Bryson

Flickr.com has a interesting story and graph about radiation. An  executive at a Silicon Valley tech firm (San Francisco) traveled to Japan for business.  One of his destinations was 50 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that generated much frantic news after the big earthquake.

"As a precaution, a colleague gave him a Geiger Counter so he could make sure it wasn’t getting dangerous as he approached the plant."

Instead of only running the Geiger Counter near the site of the nuclear meltdown, the executive left it on the entire trip with fascinating results below. The tiny bump near hour 144 is the exposure from the damaged nuclear power plant. The much larger spikes occured while flying. San Francisco to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore, Singapore to Tokyo, and Tokyo back to San Francisco. This is completely normal - a plane a mile or two up has less atmosphere to block in comming radiation from the sun and from space. The last trip has an extra tall spike because the flight went near the North Pole which blocks even less radiation than other parts of the globe.

Bottom Line

It helps to put things in perspective. Yes the radiation at the plant is bad and a meltdown did occur - BUT the effect is very local and dimishes rapidly. Persons living nearby (50 miles or so) need to be concerned about long-term accumulative risk. Visitors and tourists get greater exposure from the flight to Japan than from the damaged nuclear plant.

Potassium Iodide

"Primum non nocerum. (First do no harm)"
— attributed to Hippocrates

With Nuclear radiation leaks in Japan, bottles of Potassium Iodide have flown off the shelves of stores around the world. Recently a friend recommended that I encourage others to buy Potassium iodide. I disagreed.

In the late 70's under President Ford, Swine Flu first became a public concern and there was a push to have everyone inoculated against it. However the 1970's swine flu shot caused serious allergic reactions in rare cases. It turned out more people died from the shot than from that occurrence of Swine flu. [This is not the case today where the shot is safer and the flu deadlier.]

Potassium Iodide is similar. Yes its benefits are amazing under certain conditions. But it has side effects and can be dangerous to infants and the elderly.

Let's start with why take Potassium Iodide and what does it do?

Dangerous levels of radiation drop off quickly with distance from the accident. In Tokyo the exposure after 36 hours was equal to eating one banana (banana are high in potassium.) We get radiation all the time from the sky, from granite, from medical X-rays, etc. Fortunately, humans can tolerate a lot of low level radiation spread evenly throughout the body. But radioactive Iodine is different - it is not spread out evenly but concentrates in one spot.

The human Thyroid collects and hoards all Iodine that enters the body. If that Iodine is radioactive, it can kill the thyroid or cause thyroid cancer. [In America the cure for hyper-thyroidism is a large does of radioactive Iodine in a pill to kill the thyroid. The patient then lives on an artificial hormone to replace the thyroid secretions.] Often in the years after nuclear accidents, the only cancer to spike or become epidemic is Thyroid cancer. 

A Potassium Iodide pill blocks radioactive Iodine for 24 hours. The pill must be taken BEFORE radiation exposure to fill up the Thyroid so it has no room to absorb the bad Iodine, allowing the bad Iodine to be excreted from the body. It is VERY effective at preventing Thyroid cancer if taken immediately.

So why not pop a Potassium Iodide pill every day, just in case? The pill also shuts the Thyroid down temporarily. In the very young (under one month) this can affect brain development. Potassium Iodide can reach infants in the womb and newborns through mother's milk.

Adults can be affected in two ways. First - unlikely but serious side effects include: burning mouth/throat, sore teeth/gums, swelling inside the mouth, increased saliva, eye irritation/swollen eyelids, severe headache, swelling of the front of the neck/throat (goiter), confusion, numbness/tingling/pain/weakness of the hands/feet. Rare but very serious side effects include: chest pain, black stools, vomit that looks like coffee grounds, bloody diarrhea.

Second - a Potassium Iodide pill is good for 24 hours and is only meant to be taken once (or at most a few days if advised by emergency authorities). It's a buffer of protection as you evacuate a contaminated area. It is not meant for long term protection. When used repeatedly signs of decreased thyroid gland function include weight gain, cold intolerance, slow/irregular heartbeat, constipation, and unusual tiredness.

Bottom Line

While Potassium Iodide (KI) is very useful when properly used I have many objections to recommending that everyone buy it.

1. The news media is terrible at reporting radiation and loves to scare the public with stories like, "Radiation found in Milk in Massachusetts." This causes panic and results in people taking the KI pills when the risks of the pills outweigh the risks of radiation. You should only take the pills when public health authorities (not the media) recommend it.

2 The pill only works prior to exposure and is dangerous if used long term.

3. The dosage of KI is age dependent. Read the bottle carefully. Taking extra dosage does NOT help and can be dangerous. Adults older than 40 years should not take KI unless public health or emergency management officials say that contamination with a very large dose of radioactive iodine is expected.

4. Ask your doctor before buying to see if you or a family member has a condition that puts you in danger from Potassium Iodide. Also talk to a doctor if you are pregnant or nursing.

5. Lastly - KI is not 100% protection from radiation. It protects only the Thyroid and does nothing for high levels of ration which destroy the entire body. It protect only against radioactive Iodine found in Nuclear accidents. It does not against alpha/beta/gamma radiation of dirty bombs, or nuclear explosions.

If you live near (say 100 miles as the wind blows) a Nuclear Plant, AND you understand the risks of Potassium Iodide AND when to use it, then buy a bottle. Otherwise don't.

Resources:
http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp
http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2011/03/16/potassium-iodide-pills.htm
http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2011/03/potassium-iodide-pills-can-they-protect-you-from-radiation-exposure.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_iodide

The Return of Duck and Cover

“If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer that most people would: nuclear war, global warming and [Microsoft] Windows.”
- comedian Dave Barry

Last month the New York Times published a Science article on the US strategy for surviving a nuclear attack.

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.

What amazes me is that a NYT science writer should consider this "surprising" and "new". There is no mention in the article of the Duck and Cover campaign of the 1950's where school children (and adults) were taught to get under cover immediately. Fortunately the layout editors have longer memories. The media accompanying the story include a 1950's photo of office workers heading for a basement shelter, a family in the 1960's running to there backyard fallout shelter, and a graphic that is labeled "Duck and Cover".

The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

Again this is old news. There are many ways to die in a nuclear blast and sheltering helps protect against each:
- Poisoned by Radiation
- Burned by the Heat Flash
- Pierced by shrapnel in the explosive wind of the blast
- Struck by falling objects as buildings collapse

A serious but non-lethal danger is blindness - DO NOT look at the blast!

Administration officials argue that the cold war created an unrealistic sense of fatalism about a terrorist nuclear attack. “It’s more survivable than most people think,” said an official deeply involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The key is avoiding nuclear fallout.”

The important thing is to be informed and not panic. The Instapundit notes that, "Even back in the 1960s there were Civil Defense debates on whether [or not] to give warning in case of an attack, based on studies that showed more people would be sheltered by where they happened to be than would benefit from a warning, since many people would immediately either try to flee, or to return to their homes, winding up in more exposed positions when the bomb went off."

Bottom Line

Again from the Instapundit, "I find that my law students — effectively post-Cold War generation — know next to nothing about nuclear weapons, fallout, and basic civil-defense stuff that most people knew back when I was a kid. So education is warranted."

Here's a 2 page summary by Homeland Security, Planning for a Nuclear Detonation

And a new 135 page report called Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation

Dirty Bombs

[A] radioactive "dirty bomb" (...) spreads radioactive material that is highly toxic to humans and can cause mass death and injury. - Attorney General John Ashcroft, 2002

An analysis on Stratfor.com downplays the danger of Dirty Bombs. These types of bombs use common explosives to spread radioactive materials (hence ‘dirty’). There is no nuclear reaction, no mushroom cloud, just a normal explosion that coats an area with radioactive dust. Since they are much easier to build than an atom bomb, and radioactive byproducts are easier to acquire, there reasonable concern that terrorists will someday use dirty bombs.

The common media portrayal of dirty bombs is that they will “immediately cause hundreds or even thousands of deaths.” Not true, says Stratfor. A dirty bomb is not a “weapon of mass destruction” but rather a weapon of mass “disruption”. Immediate deaths would result from the explosion itself and the resulting panic when the bomb is found to be “dirty”. The dirty effects of the radioactivity are longer term and most people will be safely decontaminated (eventually).

The real problem is economic and psychological. Since anyone living or working in a radioactive area will sicken and die over days/weeks/years, the area must be cordoned off and abandoned until cleaned. A total cleanup will require relocating everyone, tearing down the buildings, streets, sidewalks, and scraping the soil. Not at all cheap if the area is downtown NY, London or DC. And not nice if the target is something historical and irreplaceable.

To back up their analysis downplaying the danger, Stratfor looks at the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in northern Ukraine. This was bigger than any possible dirty bomb and in fact more than one hundred times the radiation of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The Chernobyl explosion killed 31 persons in the immediate aftermath. Over several decades it may contribute to the deaths of 9,000 people from radiation poisoning. But many of those affected by the radiation are still alive more than 20 years after the accident. Today, 5.5 million people live in the contaminated zone.

Fortunately for civilization, it’s not easy to use radiation as a mass weapon. Yes, a concentrated radioactive substance can kill individuals quickly with direct exposure – but such items are rare and quantities small. With dirty bombs the radiation is spread far and wide by the explosion; maximizing the number of people impacted but weakening the lethality.

Bottom Line

What should you do if you are a victim of a dirty bomb?

• Don’t panic!
  
• The CDC recommends sheltering inside a building with intact walls. If you’re outside, cover your mouth and nose to avoid breathing in the radioactive dust (VERY IMPORTANT), avoid touching anything, and get inside the nearest walled shelter quickly. While outside, clothing is an effective shield against energetic alpha particles but if you breath those same particles in – damage will be done.
  
• If inside a damaged building, move to an undamaged interior room.
  
• When you come in from outside, remove your shoes and outer clothing at the door. Up to 90% of the radioactive dust on you is on your clothes. Don’t spread it around your shelter. If possible seal your clothes, shoes, and breathing cloth/mask it in a plastic bag or other disposable storage. You don’t want to be near these clothes afterwards (or ever again).
  
• Shut all windows, outside doors, and fireplace dampers. Turn off fans and heating and air-conditioning systems that bring in air from the outside. It is not necessary to put duct tape or plastic around doors or windows.
  
• If outside or exposed, shower or wash ALL exposed skin with soap and water to remove any remaining dust. Be sure to wash your hair. Don’t put contaminated clothes back on. Don’t forget that your washing area may now be slightly radioactive from the rinsed off dust. Initially the washing water should be safe – water inside pipes at the time of the explosion is protected. But over time as water is used, you’ll be drawing from lakes and reservoirs that may have been exposed.
  
• Cover any open wounds to keep radioactive dust out of your blood stream.
  
• If you’re at home and have pets outside, get them indoors and wash them completely.
  
• Tune to the local radio or television news for more instructions.
  
• Don’t go outside until instructed to by authorities. When leaving your temporary shelter, cover up 100% with clean clothes/coat/blanket. You’ll need new shoes or a substitute. You’ll repeat the process of disposing the outer clothing layers and washing when you return to a shelter.
  
• Do not attempt to rescue your children at their school. They should be safe in a school shelter. You endanger yourself by traveling and contaminate the school shelter by demanding entrance or even opening the door.
  
• Don’t eat or drink from anything that was open and possibly contaminated by dust. Sealed food is ok but be sure to wash the outside container first. Avoid drinking public faucet water until authorities say it is safe. You don’t want to allow anything radioactive inside your body.
  
• If all goes well, your exposure will be no worse than an intensive medical X-ray and there will be no symptoms. However if you experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and swelling and redness of the skin then you were exposed to a higher level of radiation and need medical attention ASAP.

Resources

CDC Public Service Announcements for a Dirty Bomb
(what you hope to never hear on your radio)
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/firsthours/word/messages_dirtybomb.doc

Nuclear War Survival Skills by Kresson H Kearny.

CNN
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/06/10/cohen.dirty.bomb.otsc/

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_bomb

Nuclear Fallout

“Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos.” - David Cronenberg

The definitive guide to surviving nuclear fallout appears to be Nuclear War Survival Skills by Kresson H Kearny. Chapter 1 is devoted to debunking the many myths that there is no chance of survival. Tens of thousands of people did survive the atom bombs dropped in WWII and went on to live "normal" lives with non-mutant children.

Yet if you're not convinced that Nuclear War is survivable (for some), then consider two other scenarios where knowledge of radiation skills could save your life: dirty bombs and nuclear power plants. A dirty bomb uses a normal explosion (like TNT) to spread radioactive dust. The result is radiation poisoning but without the mushroom cloud. It is far easier for terrorist to build a dirty bomb than a nuclear bomb.

Another radiation risk is nuclear power. With the exception of 3-mile island, the US has an excellent safety history for nuclear power. But as plants age and old fuel rods pile up there is a growing possibility of a nuclear accident. Here in NY, a leak was found in the holding pond for old fuel rods at the Indian Point reactors. The authorities claim the radiation leaked into the Hudson River was within safety guidelines (this time).

Bottom Line

Old nuclear fuel is a security and safety risk ignored by many. After much debate the "best" solution found was to bury old fuel rods inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Billions of dollars were spent building tunnels but Nevada has never liked the idea of being the dumping site for nuclear trash and has tried many times to kill the project. With the current DC administration, Nevada appears to have succeeded. This means dozens of sites across America will continue to store radioactive rods in places were never meant to be long term. These sites are also at risk for attack by anyone wanting to collect radioactive materials to make a dirty bomb.