Let us frankly expose the TRUTH – Common man (person) including illiterate, semi-illiterate, and so-called literate or educated, hardly know anything about ionizing radiation. They only know that radiation is very harmful, so many thousands have died in the explosions of atom bombs in Japan; exposed person will lose hair and become impotent, etc etc. How we are going to explain all the benefits we talking about to such a large percentage, may be more than 90% of the population who are lacking an understanding of elementary radiation physics, mathematics, biology and medicine?
Communication
is the key. All the practitioners of applications of radiation and radiological
protection should focus on ways and means to create awareness amongst the
people about radiation, benefits of low level exposures, medical uses in
health-care and food preservation, some health effects at high levels of
exposures, and how safely the radioactive waste is managed by concerned
experts. We should use mass media communication systems and school/college
syllabus to maximum possible extent. Desist from use of words, like
probability, ALARA and risk analysis when communicating with members of the
public.
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