Is Nuclear safe or not?

[Rheghead]

I have been reading a website (http://www.politics.co.uk/domestic-policy/no-evidence-nuclear-power-cancer-link-$8714141.htm) that states there has been a massive study into health and living near to nuclear power plants and other installations.

It states that there is no increased risk near to power stations but it has revealed that there are cancer clusters near to other installations such as Dounreay and Sellafield. Though there has not been a causal link. It does not state where 'non nuclear clusters' are to balance the findings.

[Bill Fernie]

The problem for most of us is that on topics like this the reports and views coming from many sources are conflicting and give very few claer messages except that they would like to see more research carried out.

We are faced with the dliemma on other realted topics where cancer is suggested as a possible outcome of living near or doing certain activites - eg
Power Lines and childhood Cancer
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7460
http://i-newswire.com/pr24064.html
Mobile phones tumour risk to young children
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1436543,00.html
Meat, dairy foods and the risk of breat cancer
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/hliving/medaibrc.html
Dioxins in Mil and Milk Products
http://www.nifda.co.uk/showpress.asp?id=32
Experts Weigh supervolcano risks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4326987.stm
Smoking - Health Risks
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/smokehealth.htm
Managing road Safety At work
http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/safety/education/occupational+road+risk.htm

There are huge number of risks in the world and they vary from the unlikely to happen to you to the possibly will if you engage in certain activities. how do we assess the risk from living near power plants and other installations. Despite all the research most of us tend to depend on our own and perhaps a few friends and realtives experiences. A continual run of research on cell phones has not changed most people's behaviour and usage is growing at a phenominal rate - the research is often confusing and conflicting - ie we do not really know and no clear message and yet possibly many people keep there calls short because of the mixed messages.

There is a much clearer message on smoking where huge amounts of research and medical tesimony as well as the knowledge gleaned from our own experience of friends and relatives suffering after years of smoking. Yet despite the fact that many people are attempting to give up and the numbers of smokers is declining there are still mainly young people taking it up. It seems we all have the capacity to do things at any levels of riskk even where the information sugggests the practice certainly risky and probably fatal or at least leaving legacy of ill-health.

Living next to power stations does not appear to have been shown to have any adverse affect but the research having been placed in the public domain leaves a nagging doubt for some people and of course opens the door for the necessity to keep researching the topic. It may be of course that as the research continues the original possible cause may be finally discounted and the likely cause come into view.

We do spend a lot of time looking at risks but for the population as whole there are still some basic things to look at regarding safety and I suggest only a few out of list that no doubt readers can add to -
Road Safety - essential to take as much care as possible and especially teach children road safety and slow down when driving as speed is often fatal once an accident occurs.
Safe Sex - Many more people are dying of HIV/Aids and hthe risks of sexually transmitted diseases is once again rising. Many more young people are catching Chlamydia http://www.tiscali.co.uk/lifestyle/healthfitness/health_advice/netdoctor/000225.html
Public heatlh officials in all areas are concerned about the rise of this disease causing infertility. It is a silent problem not just in its movement in the population but the seeming ignorance of those catching it when the risks are well known
simliar problems are attached to the risk factors for other sexually transmitted diseases Yet more time is spent debating the risks fo living near to power lines and power plants as it is in vogue.
and so we could go on
The risks of obesity and weith loss
http://www.weight-loss-diet-i.com/obesity-risks.htm
This is another well known risk and most people have reasonbale understanding that being overwight is probably not good thing.

Understanding the risk of something like living near to a power station is difficult for most people. The connections with certain cancers are all on increased risk factors that are still very much debated by the scientific community. In that field unlike some of the others list above the public must wrestle with the scientific data availabel if they have time to read it, the media reports on the topic where hopefully journalists have studied and tried to relate the basic information. In all this the man in the street has to deal with a non-stop flow of conflicing information on some topics like the living nexto power plants one. The danger is that some people may switch off to all messages and warnings and if they do so then some of the well proven ones will be ignored damaging them or their families and other memebers of society.

We all have our own ways of dealing with these risk messages and some poeple will err on total safety on evey one and may live with that and others wlil ignore eveythng and probaly die early. Between those two extremes are all of the rest of us.

Managing risk is something we all do most of the time and may only get caught out when we let our guard down in some cases for few seconds - the inattention casuing a car crash or longer term by some practice in our lives we are used to but is essentially very risky. We have to juggle so much information and our decisions are often made quickly and aferw based on experience made over a much longer time scale.

Unless involved directly in management we may not apply rules - eg
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sdtoolkit/reference/deliverylifecycle/manage_risk.html

We all adopt an approach just to get by whether it is burying your head in the sand to trying to decide on all of the riks in a sensible fashion. Whatever the approach in some cases you wil be right and some wrong. The most sensible appraoch will not always allow you to make the correct decision. but perhaps the bigggest risk might be worrying about it all. Making up your mind on the riks and moving quickly on is probably the best way.

And what about this monitor risk
http://workingfromhome.allinfoabout.com/monitors.html

Ach Weel on with the day. Meetings and more risks................................

Don't worry it wil probably never happen.............................