Peat?...or not..

Yacobian should consider the large number of cancer deaths in Scotland, Northern and Western Ireland and the Isle of Man etc since Chernoble. The incubation period is bringing all of these to a head now. I have personally lost four close family members and three close friends in the past 18 months. That is no coincidence. All we were told after Chernoble was not to eat the lamb from the North Antrim coast. Everything else was hushed up. It is now a repeat of that process with Japan. We have all long known of the effects of Sellafield on the radioactive fish available from the Irish sea.
His idea that if gardeners stop using peat in their gardens the world will suddenly become a richer cleaner place takes a degree of faith that I for one simply don't have

 

Whiskey,

I've not said "Not using peat will clean the world", but have clearly stated that it is one, of many, things we should cut down on using because on the whole it adds to the multitude of pollutants that are slowly rotting the planet, and on this no faith is required, just an ability to interpret data.

Chernobyl was a badly designed power plant that got destroyed as a result of its poor construction and maintenance. Japan's were literally smashed by kinetic force, and its only due to the amazing design that they didn't all get destroyed and irradiate everything. The differences being that one was a full on release of radiation and the most recent is a slow, measured, leak that is nothing compared to Chernobyl.

If you asked that being near Sellafield might have been the reason, and from a lack of an answer blindly leaped at the specious conclusion that in fact its the main reason, then really that is objectively unfair.

Without all the information any decent scientist would not give you an answer. Period.

But considering that Sellafield is such a highly maintained site, it is unlikely. They would not be allowed to continue to process anything if that were the case, in spite of what you've been told by untrained, ill-informed, conspiracy theorists.

In terms of being told not to eat the meat, the amount of radiation that has to be detected in order has to be really, really low. Its a sort of heath and safety thing- hedging your bets..etc.
Now im not saying that the level of radiation in the meat where you live is high or low, i really have no way of knowing; But what i am saying is that even if it was minute, you would still be told to play it safe.

That you have lost family to various cancers - to this i can only give you my sympathies, Its clearly a horrendous disease. But to be objective, you have to consider that there are multiple reasons for the emergence of cancer, even within small groups that have nothing to do with being situated near power plants or fallout zones :(

If being situated near a plant or a decommissioning centre was the reason for irradiation, the effect would be replete in all surrounding areas, considering they all use similar techniques. As far as i know, no one has ever measured this to be true. Unfortunately the most likely answer is that its a coincidence, also consider that the corruption of DNA can frequently be hereditary, so it is unsurprising that cancer can occur in a few people of the same genepool.

Yaco.