Radiophobia
Radiophobia is an abnormal fear of ionizing radiation, in particular, fear of X-rays. The term is also used in a non-medical sense to refer to general opposition to the use of nuclear energy.
Fear of ionizing radiation is not unnatural, since it can pose significant risks; however this fear may become abnormal and even irrational, often owing to poor information or understanding, but also as a consequence of traumatic experience.
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[edit] Castle Bravo and its influence on public perception
In 1954, the Castle Bravo test caught the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru in its radiation plume, even though it was fishing outside the predicted fallout area. All of the crew fell sick, and Kuboyama Aikichi, the boat's chief radioman, died less than seven months later, on September 23, 1954.[1][2] It was later estimated that about a hundred fishing boats were contaminated to some degree by fallout from the test. Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were also exposed to fallout, and a number of islands had to be evacuated entirely.[2]
This incident created widespread fear of uncontrolled and unpredictable nuclear weapons, and also of radioactively contaminated fish affecting the Japanese food supply. With the publication of Sir Joseph Rotblat's findings that the contamination caused by the fallout from the Castle Bravo test was nearly a thousand times greater than that stated officially, outcry in Japan reached such a level that the incident was dubbed by some as "a second Hiroshima".[3] To prevent the subsequent strong anti-nuclear movement from turning into an anti-American movement, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on compensation of 2 million dollars for the contaminated fishery, with the surviving victims receiving about ¥ 2 million each (US$ 5,550 in 1954, US$ 48031.23 in 2012[4]).[5][6]
The Castle Bravo test and the new fears of radioactive fallout inspired a new direction in art and cinema. The Godzilla films, beginning with Ishirō Honda's landmark 1954 film Gojira, are strong metaphors for post-war radiophobia. The opening scene of Gojira echoes the story of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, from the initial distant flash of light to survivors being found with radiation burns. Although he found the special effects unconvincing, Roger Ebert stated that the film was "an important one" and "properly decoded, was the Fahrenheit 9/11 of its time."[7]
A year after the Castle Bravo test, Akira Kurosawa examined one person's unreasoning terror of radiation and nuclear war in his 1955 film I Live in Fear. At the end of the film, the foundry worker who lives in fear has been declared incompetent by his family, but the possible partial validity of his fears has transferred over to his doctor.
Nevil Shute's 1957 novel On the Beach depicts a future just six years later, where nuclear war has released so much radioactive fallout that all life in the Northern Hemisphere has been killed. The novel is set in Australia, which, along with the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, awaits a similar and inevitable fate.
[edit] Radiophobia and Chernobyl
In the former Soviet Union many patients with radioactive sickness after the Chernobyl disaster were accused of radiophobia[citation needed]. The term "radiation phobia syndrome" was introduced in 1987 [8] by L. A. Ilyin and O. A. Pavlovsky in their report "Radiological consequences of the Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union and measures taken to mitigate their impact,"[9]
The author of Chernobyl Poems Lyubov Sirota[10] wrote in her poem "Radiophobia":
Is this only—a fear of radiation?
Perhaps rather—a fear of wars?
Perhaps—the dread of betrayal,
Cowardice, stupidity, lawlessness?
The term has been criticized by Adolph Kharash, Science Director at the Moscow State University because, he writes,
It treats the normal impulse to self-protection, natural to everything living, your moral suffering, your anguish and your concern about the fate of your children, relatives and friends, and your own physical suffering and sickness as a result of delirium, of pathological perversion[11]
[edit] Radiophobia as a term in the atomic energy debate
The term "radiophobia" is also polemically applied to the arguments of proponents of the LNT concept (Linear no-threshold response model for ionizing radiation) of radiation security proposed by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) in 1949. The "no-threshold" position effectively assumes that even negligible doses of radiation may pose danger. The issue remains controversial.[12]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20090301a2.html
- ^ a b Lorna Arnold and Mark Smith. (2006). Britain, Australia and the Bomb, Palgrave Press.
- ^ Beverly Deepe Keever (February 25, 2004). "Shot in the Dark". Honolulu Weekly. http://www.honoluluweekly.com/archives/coverstory%202004/2-25-04%20Bravo%20shot/Bravo%20shot.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30. "The Japanese government and people dubbed it “a second Hiroshima” and it nearly led to severing diplomatic relations."
- ^ In 25 April 1949 the US dollar was pegged to the YEN at $USD 1 = 360 YEN
- ^ Keiji Hirano (Feb 29, 2004). "Bikini Atoll H-bomb damaged fisheries, created prejudice". chugoku. http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/04e/kyodo/Ak04022901.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
- ^ Gerard DeGroot, The Bomb: A Life, Random House, 2004.
- ^ Chicago Sun-Times
- ^ Bella Belbéoch, RESPONSABILITES OCCIDENTALES DANS LES CONSEQUENCES SANITAIRES DE LA CATASTROPHE DE TCHERNOBYL, EN BIELORUSSIE, UKRAINE ET RUSSIE, in: Radioprotection et Droit nucléaire [eds.: Ivo Rens and, Joël Jakubec, collection SEBES, 1998, pp. 247-261 (English translation: "Western responsibility regarding the health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belarus, the Ukraine and Russia")
- ^ L. A. Ilyin and O. A. Pavlovsky,"Radiological consequences of the Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union and measures taken to mitigate their impact" IAEA Bulletin 4/1987.
- ^ "The Chernobyl Poems of Lyubov Sirota"
- ^ "A Voice from Dead Pripyat" by Adolph Kharash Science Director, Moscow State University
- ^ Zbigniew Jaworowski, Radiation Risk and Ethics, Physics Today, 52(9), September 1999, pp. 24-29
