NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2007
White House May Halt Anti-Radiation Pills
The Skinny: Plan Born Of Terror Fears Scrapped To Boost Confidence In Nuclear Power
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which isn't sure that taking anti-radiation pills is really the best way to prevent thyroid cancer in the event of a terrorist attack on a nuclear reactor, was put in charge of the government's pill distribution program in July. (AP / CBS)
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Interactive Nuclear Disasters Review some of the worst accidents in the history of nuclear power, see how the body responds to radiation exposure and find out if there's a nuclear plant near you.
Is the White House admitting that global warming is scarier than terrorism?
That seems to be the message behind USA Today's report that the Bush administration may scrap a plan to give anti-radiation pills to millions of people, five years after Congress ordered that the tablets be made available to anyone living within 20 miles of a nuclear reactor.
Congress issued the order based on fears that terrorists could attack a nuclear plant. The once-a-day pills protect the thyroid against ingested radioactive iodine by saturating it with harmless potassium iodide, thus guarding against thyroid cancer following radioactive exposure.
Back when the White House was focused on conjuring images of mushroom clouds to sell the Iraq war, it called potassium iodide pills crucial to preventing thyroid cancer. But now that it's looking like we might actually need all those nuclear reactors - plus a whole lot more of them - to power the country, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is arguing against distributing the pills.
"According to the NRC, the pills may not be the most effective way to prevent cancer and could undermine confidence in the U.S. nuclear plants," the paper reports.
In a sign of where he stands now, President Bush stripped the Health and Human Services of responsibility for the program and turned it over to the NRC in July.
The American Thyroid Association is furious. "If you entrust our kids' health to nuclear engineers instead of doctors," said Peter Crame, a former lawyer with the NRC and thyroid cancer advocate, "you are inviting disaster."
Phone Companies Seeking Immunity Donated To Senator
This morning's installment of Not Illegal But Still Totally Depressing Behavior In Washington comes courtesy of the New York Times.
The paper reports that executives at the two biggest phone companies contributed more than $42,000 to Sen. John Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., this year while seeking his support for legal immunity for business participating in the National Security Agency eavesdropping.
The contributions come from "a Who's Who of executives" at AT&T and Verizon, starting with the chief executives and including at least 50 executives and lawyers, according to campaign finance reports.
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, emerged last week as the most important supporter of immunity in devising a compromise plan with Senate Republicans and the Bush administration, the paper reports.
A measure approved by the committee on Thursday would add restrictions on the eavesdropping and extent retroactive immunity to carriers that participated in it. The companies face big lawsuits from customers who say their privacy was violated when the telecoms helped the government snoop on them without warrants.
Rockefeller denies that the sudden surge in telecom contributions swayed his opinion. One of his supporters backs him up by pointing out the obvious: the guy's name is John D. Rockefeller IV.
"That these phone companies are going to focus their lobbying efforts where their business interests are is no revelation," said Matt Bennett, vice president for Third Way, a moderate Democraticy policy group that has supported immunity for phone carriers. "That's the standard Washington way of doing business. But you're not going to buy a Rockefeller."
Incoming!
The search continued yesterday for one of two pieces of luggage that vanished on Sunday after a cargo door on an airplane apparently opened in flight, the
Shortly after a plane took off from Chicago's Midway Airport, its controls indicated an air pressure problem, according to a spokeswoman for Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which operated the Delta flight to Atlanta.
The plane circled back and landed. None of the 70 passengers were injured, but the ground crew found a cargo door open. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the case.
A breakthrough happened on Monday when an employee at a railroad switching yard less than a mile from the airport found one of the missing pieces, a garment bag, on the ground.
The Times, at least, couldn't find anybody who'd ever heard of luggage falling out of a flying plane before. The airline spokeswoman said the airline was thankful that "no one has been hurt during this very rare incident."
But how can she be sure? The second bag, the Times reports, remains at large.
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See all 75 CommentsThe biggest problem with them is they have a very small window of opportunity to be used. Also, they are not safe is used improperly.
Radioactive Iodine is a fairly short lived byproduct of nuclear fission. In a Pressurized Water reactor the following would have to occur for the public health to be threatened:
Large scale fuel cladding failure (core meltdown).
Failure of the Reactor Coolant System: Three Mile Island had a valve stuck open that eventually overcame the emergency relief storage system and breached the sealed system; releasing lots of water and iodine into the containment building.
Containment building being breached before the iodine is neutralized. Containment spray systems are designed to neutralize any iodine that may escape the RCS system.
If all of that fails - then radioactive iodine will be vented to that atmosphere and drift downwind.
If peoples thyroid are not saturated with iodine before the iodine plume gets there they will absorb some of the radioactive iodine.
People would need to take the iodine pill some hours before the breach of the containment building to protect their thyroid (it takes time to absorb the iodine). Taking it too late does not help. Due to the dose in the pills it is not safe to take them on a consistent basis.
There is only a short period of time to take them in even the best scenarios.
I support these pills being available; and clear instructions on when to take them.
Quote:
Lead will stop radiation so if you want anti-radiation protection surround your self with walmart toys from China...
Posted by Toolmangler at 03:36 PM : Oct 23, 2007
Thanks, Tool. You managed to disrupt my morning blood pressure rise as I cruised the info-channels with a little laughter.
I appreciate it (even if the underlying truths are both wearing and worrisome).
Re: Phone companies. Although I have nothing to hide, their actions disturb me on general principles. Thankfully, due to the number of alternatives the ''net provides I could express my displeasure with my wallet: Don''t use them.
Re: Luggage - I''m not surprised nobody has found the rest of it. I used to like flying into Midway because you could actually land there instead of circling over O''Hare for hours, but I never wanted to linger in the neighborhood...
The fact is that the dissemination of information about stockpiling the pills was part of Bush''s terror campaign, to make the suckers out there think that fictional "terrorists" out there somewhere in the Middle East were "coming to get you", armed with nuclear waste. Now that the scare has worked and is now counter productive to the interests of the power companies'' wish to go nuclear, they backtrack and say "Oops, we scared the suckers too much, lets back it off a little".
You know, it is even more insulting that they even spend effort to try to scare people, because they are going to do whatever corruption they set their little brains to regardless.
NOW CHECK OUT THE PRICE OF COKE AND YOU WILL SEE THAT WE HAVE BEEN IN INFLATION SINCE THE END OF WW2.
AND IT CONTINUES!
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Posted by prairiefox1 at 11:17 AM : Oct 23, 2007
+ report abuse
CAPS LOCK FOR IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL WOOT
Jumping to a conclusion, aren''t you? Shame on CBS for trivializing two serious concerns to fit some stupid agenda.
NOW CHECK OUT THE PRICE OF COKE AND YOU WILL SEE THAT WE HAVE BEEN IN INFLATION SINCE THE END OF WW2.
AND IT CONTINUES!
THE CUNNING WILL SURVIVE!
Posted by gunnerv1 at 10:57 AM : Oct 23, 2007
Sorry, but I don''t understand the point you are trying to make.
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Posted by vampire1288 at 10:07 AM : Oct 23, 2007
ACTUALLY IT WAS SELTZER BOTTLES!
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
I fully agree with you; however I would feel more confident if the Dems we voted in last time would grow collective backbones and do the jobs for which they were elected.
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