Michigan finds low-level radiation in air travel! Michigan finds low-level radiation in CAT scans! Michigan finds low-level radiation in TVs!
These headlines are true, if irresponsible. Harmless radiation is all around us.
But irresponsibility is the norm for coverage of the Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan. Thus, last week’s Associated Press headline: “Michigan finds low-level radiation in air sample.”
The story was repeated in states from California to Idaho and had the effect of panicking Americans while enraging scientific experts.
“It’s unconscionable that the media would raise these fears,” says Jay Lehr, Science Director of the Heartland Institute. “There is zero chance (radiation levels) would have any impact on America’s public health.”
The AP story eventually noted that the low levels pose “no health threat to residents.” But the damage is done in the inflammatory headline. If it is benign, why the bullhorn head?
“The only people at risk are the people at the plant,” says Lehr. Yet the media continues to obsess on everything from Tokyo water levels to Michigan radiation readings. U.S. radiation readings are less than a citizen would receive on a round-trip cross-country flight — or in getting a CAT scan. As Fox 2 Detroit News Robin Schwartz put it in a rare, sensible report: “A regular banana has 15 times more radiation than what has been detected in the air.”