From: Eric Walker
Steven Vincent Johnson wrote: If the local wildlife has ingested 600 times the amount of radioactivity to be eaten by humans, I find myself asking myself: how the hell can they continue to survive and presumably reproduce? One thought I have here is that 600 times permissible levels for humans might not be all that much. Sometimes regulators can be a little squeamish. I suspect this is as much for political reasons as health reasons -- it looks bad to say "a little radiation never harmed anyone." In fact it could help a few poor souls… The EPA recommends corrective action for any house with an indoor concentration level higher than 148 Bq/m3. Guess what: nearly one in 15 homes in the U.S. has such a level of indoor radon … and often much more. However there is conflicting evidence on whether this level is more harmful to a smoker, for instance or less. (It is more harmful to a juvenile nonsmoker for sure). “Radium caves” were considered healthful in the USA not too long ago - and they were considered especially helpful for people with chronic respiratory problems. The raises the perplexing question of whether someone who has already developed lung cancer from smoking could actually have their life extended by breathing radium/radon at selected times … the idea being the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” … at least as long as the concentration was “not to hot and not too cold,” which is to say the Goldilocks’ cure…
