False Fear of Low-Dose Radiation – Strawberries – A Personal Experience

Radioactive Strawberries?

In 2008, David presented a paper in the International Mine Water Association conference in Karlovy-Vary (Karlsbad, Czech Republic). As part of our conference trip, we included a field trip to Hamr-Stráž, an area where uranium deposits had been exploited by the USSR with little regard for the environment or the health of workers. As part of the field trip we learnt about one of the huge legacies left for the Czech people to clean up. Technical details of the current chemistry and radiology were presented along with technological details needed for the rehabilitation of the ground water. Following the presentation we visited the extensive site where I spotted wild strawberries.

I decided to eat some and bent down and picked a few. Suddenly, I was the centre of attention. “Do you think you should eat them. Aren’t you scared of the radiation in the strawberries?” I looked at the men around me and said “You have seen the data, yes I will eat them.” Once I ate one, suddenly the atmosphere changed and many others joined me. The strawberries were wonderful. We had been given much more data than appears in the reference below yet fear came first, not data and rational thinking.

Remediation of consequences of chemical leaching of uranium
in Stráž pod Ralskem – https://www.imwa.info/docs/imwa_2008/IMWA2008_036_Muzak.pdf

Photographs in Hamr-Stráž by Dr David Jones

Next time: the effect of false fear of low-dose radiation – Fukushima

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