George Johnson Response

On 4/5/17 I met Mr. Johnson at the VA eye clinic to and eye examination. This was a long appointment to allow for eye drops and different providers performing testing. He has finished physical therapy and has a home exercise program. All testing and appointments have been completed and Mr. Johnson is back to baseline. He has been cleared to drive but due to some financial difficulties is unable to get a car loan. There are no further appointments scheduled related to the auto accident.

The book Hiroshima by John Hersey is about the atomic bomb and how it affected the lives of six specific characters. It not only ruined their neighborhood and shelter, but their bodies. Radiation hit these characters and the rest of the Hiroshima population like a truck. They had no idea what was happening to themselves. Not even the doctors in Japan knew what was happening like the Mother Superior of the International Hospital said: “’Think twice before you give this man blood transfusions, because with atomic-bomb patients we aren’t at all sure that if you stick needles in them, they’ll stop bleeding” (Hersey 74). Now in day, however, there is a great amount more known about the consequence of radiation on

That accident was at urban centre in 1986. consistent with the report two-handed down in 2000 by the global organisation X c. Committee on the consequences of Atomic Radiation, twenty eight employees died within the initial 3 months when the incident, nineteen died between 1987 and 2004 of varied causes not essentially related to radiation

Beginning with the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, a widespread belief has proliferated that all levels of ionizing radiation are dangerous. Since 1980, radiation hormesis studies have shown there is actually a threshold of danger with high level exposures, but below that threshold low dose radiation is essentially safe and quite possibly beneficial to life. Yet, this relatively new, seemingly contradictory understanding of radiation's health effects has gone essentially unknown to the general public. In order to grasp the reasons why, we must again return to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

civilians. By the end of the year, 140,000 more people were dead as a result of radiation

should still be responsible for the people that were exposed to the radiation is because it could spread and accidently cause other to suffer and could help support the people suffering from the radiation. Radiation is energy and it can come from unstable atoms or it can be produced by machines. Radiation travels from its source in the form of energy waves or energized particles. There are actually two kinds of radiation, and one is more energetic than the other. It has so much energy it can knock electrons out of atoms, a process known as ionization. This ionizing radiation can affect the atoms in living things, so it poses a health risk by damaging tissue and DNA in genes. While there are other, less energetic, types of nonionizing radiation (including radio waves, microwaves—and visible light), this booklet is about ionizing radiation (Baes). According to illinoispoisoncenter, radiation comes from the sun and outer space, from man-made sources such as X-ray machines, and from some radioactive materials in soil. Even though radiation cannot technically spread from person to person, we encounter some radiation from foods, water, the air, our own bodies, and through medical procedures throughout our daily life and never usually receive too much that would cause

Ira Helfand demonstrates ethos, or authority, to argue the fact that any amount of radiation can be detrimental to public health, no matter how small. In order to effectively represent authority with this claim, Helfand uses a report from the National Research BEIR VI, “It is the consensus of the medical and scientific community, summarized in the National Research Council BEIR VII report, that there is no safe level of radiation,” (Helfand, 2012. Para. 2). The National Research Council BEIR VII specializes in the study of nuclear energy. For this group to insist that there is not an amount of exposure to radiation that could be deemed as safe, it is more of an “eye-opener” on the argument. Consequently, including an expert organization’s findings into his article allows Dr. Helfand a security of authority on the

Although radioactivity was at first just at the surface, later studies showed that these radioactive elements were absorbed by the soil and that their effects would be long-lasting (Gould 69). Within a short amount of time animals consumed these radioactive plants, and these particles worked their way up the food chain. Soon, not only berry crops in Austria had to be discarded, but also milk supplies in Italy (68, 69). More than twenty European nations received enough fallout to require food restrictions, and 100 million people altered their diets in the ensuing months (Flavin 6, 16). Adding to this paranoia was the fact that even the experts had little knowledge of what was happening. Most nations were unprepared, and many implemented differing safety guidelines for food (15). Some governments outright lied to quell the public’s fear (Gould 70). In the end, millions of people were exposed to unhealthy doses of radiation, and estimates for future deaths from cancer caused by this exposure range as high as one million, with half being fatal (Flavin 18). These are clearly examples of the externalities of a nuclear disaster.

(1)At 1:23 am on April 26th 1986, 2 explosions devastated a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. These explosions unleashed huge amounts of toxic radiation into the atmosphere. This radiation created a toxic plume of radiation that not only devastated Chernobyl but affected almost the whole of Europe. It started with total evacuation of the city, this started within 24 hours of the disaster and immediately an exclusion zone was in place. What the Ukrainian officials didn’t know at the time is just how serious this was. The wind blew the plumes created by this explosion one plume north and one plume west. The plumes were highly toxic and had been contaminated by the nuclear radiation. The radiation going west even reached north wales and many parts of Scotland and the south of Ireland. The radiation going north badly affected Finland, Sweden and parts of Norway. To put that into perspective the disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

One thing that I believe Johnson identifies as an important she learned is that not everyone see things the same way. A particular part of this book in which this lesson is a prevailing part, when she is talking about Kosher foods and the questions she asked or orthodox friends about those foods. Many of her friends could not understand the questions she was asking because to them the idea of eating kosher food was a nonissue, they just did it because that is what they are supposed to do to stay holy. The issue of people seeing the same things differently comes up again and again in this book. It was really an eye-opening experience for Johnson to having ongoing conversations with people who were raised and live with such a different background to her. It really made her aware that her assumption that everyone must see things the same way was wrong.

Also, x rays are capable of detecting many other issues such as cancerous masses or pneumonia as well as even dental problems all of which, again, can and have saved many lives [4]. For comparison, 400 million people are subject to x rays annually, which save substantially more lives than those of which were killed in japan [5]. Radiation can also be applied, not only to see but also to save patients in that it can be used, since it damages tissues, to kill things like tumors and other potential dangerous or life threatening masses within your body. Ironically enough it kills what it causes and for purpose of numbers, women with breast cancer had a survival rate of 25.1% in 1944 that more than tripled to 76.5% in the years 1995-2004 [6]. Also, now, 67% of women receive radiation treatment after having been diagnosed and the number is increasing [6]. But, beyond the medical field there are also economical advances that are largely caused by the use of nuclear power. These include the implementation of nuclear power plants that provide the cleanest and quickest way of generating electricity [7]. Also, to again throw numbers into the equation, fossil fuels are being consumed faster than they can be produced and the fuel for nuclear reactors, Uranium-235, is only worth 20%,

I am applying to Johnson in hopes to be able to study and major in global health in missions with a minor in intercultural studies. Health and Missions are both something that I have wanted to study, and been very interested in for a few years. After viewing some of Johnson’s courses and being able to sit in some classes and meet the teachers, I feel that this is the perfect place for me to get my best education on those topics. I live knowing that I have a commitment to my faith, and strive to keep God and His word the center of all that I do and to do everything for His glory. My relationship with God and my faith are very important to me and I always want to keep that my main focus. In my life, I want to be able to serve as a missionary wherever God calls me to, whether it is through my job or through ministry in other countries.

Studies show that the estimated average dose of radiation to the approximated 2 million people in the vicinity of the accident was only about 1 millirem.In order to show how much this dosage is, the average chest x-ray eposes a person to about 6 millirems.Also, the people around the plant are exposed to about 100 millirems to begin with due to the natural environment they live in.[9]

On March 11th, 2011, the northern section of Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 15 meter tsunami, causing the death of over 15000 people. (Spacey) Even though the earthquake and the tsunami caused a tremendous amount of deaths in the northern region of Japan, the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused a severe damage to northern Japan’s ecosystem that people still cannot go back to their homes; despite it is 4 years after the disaster. After the earthquake, the tsunami destroyed the power supply used by Fukushima’s three nuclear power stations, causing severe levels of meltdown to be occurred inside the reactors in the timespan of 3 days. It was not until 2 weeks after the tragedy, when the reactors were finally stabilized, and took several months to approach what is called a “cold shutdown condition”, in which the fission in the reactors are completely stopped.(Fukushima A)

Radiation is to be the greatest killer; we’re being reminded by the government regularly. Leaflets, posters, radio broadcasts. They’re trying to find any way possible to tell us ‘you’re going to die’.