We all know the most common fears in our society today. Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia, and Acrophobia (fear of heights). But have you ever heard of Radiophobia? No, it’s not the fear of radios although they do produce it. It’s the fear of radiation. Even though we don’t acknowledge it much, it’s one of our most common fears. Think about it, would you want to walk into the middle of Chernobyl with no protection? No. Because that fear in the back of your mind is stopping you.
This is a video by Vsauce3 figuring out if you could survive a nuclear fallout.
Fears usually happens because of one of two things. Either self preservation from harm or not understanding what something could do. In the case of radiation it’s both. When it was first discovered we were told it would save us all if we drank radioactive water. Then we were told it would kill us all with cancer. Now it’s gone into a grey area. New discoveries are being made everyday for both sides. But humans are morbid creatures, and the “kill us all” stories stick for a lot longer.
This was a commercial for a radioactive make up remover in the 50s.
Modern media has provided an interesting spin on the effects of radiation. It has stereotyped the idea that radiation is going to turn us into ravenous beasts or three armed mutants. This concept has been spread across TV, movies, and video games and is one of the reasons that the effects of radiation have stayed in our minds over the decades. Though the media has helped the image of radiation in some ways. For instance, the crazier the depictions of mutants become the more we see how irrational our fears are.
Feral ghouls from fallout 4.
Mutants from Futurama.
But that’s fiction. None of the things that happened in shows can happen in real life. Right? Well look at Chernobyl, 3 mile island, Fukushima, and so many more places. Isn’t it an eye opener that the movie China Syndrome came out two weeks before an eerily similar accident occurred? That’s not chance, that’s fiction becoming reality. Also, I remember people in 2012 fearing that we were going to lose all of Japan to a reactor meltdown. And of course who could forget Chernobyl. It’s the shining example of what could happen with nuclear power in the hands of humanity. Although, is all that fear and distrust warranted? After Chernobyl scientists predicted 9000 deaths by radiation cancer, but there were only 56 recorded deaths by that cause. New research is also coming out saying that people who live in places with more background radiation than what was released at Chernobyl, have less of a risk for cancer. So is radiation good? Is it Bad? Only time will tell. And all we can do is sit and wait with fear lying comfortably in the back of our minds.