Health physics
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Public acceptance of information concerning radiation risks has been impacted by the erosion of trust in government agencies and by societal images that personify radiation or its effects in terms of monsters and ogres. The loss of trust in government agencies, particularly the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Department of Energy, has been influenced by a number of key events and individuals. Examples of these are given, including the anti-Viet Nam war movement, the Watergate incident, the activities of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ralph Nader and the Critical Mass movement, the claims of Ernest Sternglass, and the widely publicized views of John Gofman and Arthur Tamplin. ⋯ Attempts by federal agencies to regain public trust in radiation risk information generated by health physicists or other radiation scientists appear to be largely unsuccessful. If health physicists hope to be successful in changing such public perceptions, they may have to focus efforts on the next generation and concentrate on assuring that elementary and secondary school children receive sound instruction on radiation risks. Additional research at the molecular biology level is needed to elucidate the risks, if any, at low doses so that the practice of extrapolating low dose responses from high dose data can be eliminated.
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Operation CROSSROADS, conducted at Bikini Atoll in 1946, was the first post World War II test of nuclear weapons. Mortality experience of 40,000 military veteran participants in CROSSROADS was compared to that of a similar cohort of nonparticipating veterans. ⋯ Smaller increases in participant mortality for all malignancies (1.4%, p = 0.26) or leukemia (2.0%, p = 0.9) were not statistically significant. These results do not support a hypothesis that radiation had increased participant cancer mortality over that of nonparticipants.
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The three dimensional impedance method has been used to calculate the distribution of induced current densities in a simple model of an 8-y-old child exposed to the electric and magnetic fields of an electric blanket. Two types of electric blankets have been modeled in the calculations, the pre-1989 conventional type and the presently available low magnetic field PTC (positive temperature coefficient) electric blanket. ⋯ However, the computations have also shown that the contribution to the total current density by the electric field of the low magnetic field electric blanket is slightly higher than that due to the electric field of the conventional electric blanket. Hence, the total average induced current density due to both the electric and magnetic fields in the case of the low magnetic field PTC electric blanket is about one-third that in the case of the conventional electric blanket.