{"id":8554,"date":"2011-03-31T09:41:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T13:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=8554"},"modified":"2011-03-31T10:50:02","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T14:50:02","slug":"real-world-influence-of-bad-science-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2011\/03\/31\/real-world-influence-of-bad-science-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Real world influence of bad science reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I seem to be linking to wormme’s blog a lot lately, it’s because he is a great source of practical information . . . and he hates sensationalist media reports even more than I do. Normally, the effect of junk science sensationalism is pretty small: people worry a bit more about stupid things, but generally get on with their lives.<\/p>\n

Sensational — and badly mistaken — reporting on radiation is a big exception<\/a> to that:<\/p>\n

\n

Hundreds of people evacuated from towns and villages close to the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant are being turned away by medical institutions and emergency shelters as fears of radioactive contagion catch on.<\/em><\/p>\n

Medical<\/em> personnel turning them away.<\/p>\n

Hospitals and temporary refuges are demanding that evacuees provide them with certificates confirming that they have not been exposed to radiation before they are admitted.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you readers see the error here? If not, this blog is failing you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When trained, professional medical staff are confusing radiation<\/em> with contamination<\/em>, things are really, really bad.<\/p>\n

\n

The article goes on to quote some medical experts — i.e., non-insane people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone has been contaminated externally, such as on their shoes or clothes, then precautions can be taken, such as by removing those garments to stop the contamination from getting into a hospital,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But what if it\u2019s on the person?!<\/p>\n

In my trade, we have a secret special decontamination technique. I\u2019m violating all kinds of unwritten laws by sharing it, but this is an emergency, right? When a person needs general decontamination we always do this first, and it almost always works. Are you ready?<\/p>\n

Soap and warm water.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll probably be drummed out of the National Registry of Radiological Protection Technicians for revealing that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I seem to be linking to wormme’s blog a lot lately, it’s because he is a great source of practical information . . . and he hates sensationalist media reports even more than I do. Normally, the effect of junk science sensationalism is pretty small: people worry a bit more about stupid things, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,24,28],"tags":[39,107,646,101],"class_list":["post-8554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-science","category-japan","category-media","tag-junkscience","tag-nukes","tag-tokyo","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-2dY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8555,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8554\/revisions\/8555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}