Shop's Log. Halifax NS. January 11th, Friday, 20:34. Weather: Few clouds, -5℃.
It was getting late and I was about to close the shop when two men walked in. Then, they started talking...and I engaged. I always liked a good exchange of ideas. Only one of them was doing most of the talking. Here are some snippets...
Man: All your stuff come from Japan?
Me: Most but not all.
Man: You know, the Russians stopped buying Japanese cars because they're radioactive.
Me: Really? I did not hear about that.
...and I tried to explain why I think there isn't a lot of danger of radioactive contamination in Japanese products. (See chart below.) But, a brick wall might've been a better listener. I should have just kept quiet then but I was curious about what they were thinking.
Man: We test the atmosphere around here whenever it rains for radioactivity. The nuclear reactors in Japan are still spewing radioactive particles everyday. They never covered them.
Me: You got Geiger counters?
Man: Yeah, we got Russian ones. They're good. Got them from eBay.
Me: And what are your findings?
Man: The air is contaminated to dangerous levels. The stuff comes from Japan. In Chernobyl, the Russians immediately covered the reactor with a sarcophagus. 150,000 people died from radiation poisoning doing that work.
Did I just open a can of worms? I should have stopped there as the conversation was beginning to be iffy...but I decided to probe a bit more.
Me: What exactly are "dangerous levels"? What unit of measure do you use? micro sievert per hour?
Man: They're dangerous levels and we are breathing them in!
Me: Do you know what type of radioactive particle is contaminating our air here?
Man: There's thousands of them.
Me: But their half-lives are different, no?
Man: They will all last long after you are gone.
Me: Not Iodine-131.
Man: You know, they intentionally caused the explosions. [in the nuclear reactors]
Me: Who's they?
Man: The Rockefellers.
Me: (???)
Man: Japan is their slave. The Rockefellers made the tsunami happen too.
Me: (speechless)
Man: Do you pay taxes?
Me: Yes, of course.
Man: Then you're their slave too.
By this time, I stopped engaging and started simply to agree with their "theory"...just to get them off my back. Things started to get not-so-nice... They wanted to come back with their Geiger counters and test everything in the shop. Partly my fault because I had earlier joked (when things were still light-hearted) that maybe we could test some of our stuff just to show that nothing is radioactive.
Me: I changed my mind, don't come with your Geiger counters.
Man: (hotly) You are afraid of what we will find. You are covering it up.
Me: No, I am concerned about your health. I don't want you to come back because this place is contaminated.
Man: It's for all our future, man. We must find out the truth.
At this point, I was no longer behind the counter but standing next to him, almost toe-to-toe, staring him in the eyes....and inching both of them towards the door. Not really sure how this'd pan out now.
Me: No, I said I've changed my mind. Don't. Come. Back. Here.
Man: You're just scared.
Me: Yes, you're right. I'm scared of what you might find.
I may have a little Jedi in me as my force of will pushed them further towards the door. Finally they left without incident. It was bizarre to say the least. It's funny now...but at that time, I wasn't sure how the night would end. I was just thankful it wasn't my wife who had been there...but then again, she probably wouldn't have goaded them into a conversation!
OK, if you are not too bored yet... Here are some a-little-bit-more scientific figures.
In Halifax, the typical dose that people receive from natural background radiation is 2.5 milli sievert per year. Apart from that, we get doses from artificial sources like medical procedures.
"In all, natural radiation accounts for approximately 60% of our annual dose. Medical procedures account for roughly 40% of our annual radiation. There is no difference between the effects caused by natural or man-made radiation."
In Tsukuba (a city about 250 km from Fukushima), the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has been measuring daily and hourly radiation doses since March, 2011. Here is the results chart:
The unit is in micro sievert per hour. (Note: 1000 micro sievert = 1 milli sievert)
The daily doses seem to have stabilized at roughly 0.1 micro sievert or less per hour.
Now, let's do the math...assuming one never went indoors for one whole year.
0.1 micro sievert per hr x 24hrs x 365days = 876 micro sievert per year ...or 0.876 milli sievert per year. Only.
Now, I need to interview the Rockefellers and find out what they've really been up to.
