Another Wide Spread Cause of Illness that Affects Everyone - Probably You Too!

This blog started out as a blog about Marketing, Media and Japan. But as time went on, and due to the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and the foaming-at-the-mouth rantings of people who were claiming that we all were going to die, I switched the focus of this blog to blasting those clowns out of the water. Now, I see where I have to refocus on writing about just how messed up people are and how f'ed up their priorities are.


The year is 2011. People all over the world are complaining about nuclear power. No one says anything about coal and oil even though, for every unit of power produced, those industries kill more than 5,000 times more people than those who die from nuclear power. 


People in the west are talking about their health, safety and the environment. They are "getting back to nature", "natural", "eating healthy", "living right" and "exercising", etc., etc. People complain and moan about things like nuclear power and killing dolphins and the environment, etc. all the while they stuff their faces with processed foods, drive their cars like idiots, and do all sorts of things to their bodies that will kill them years before their time and way before any nuclear radiation will.


But I continue to flog a dead horse.


Actually, I am on vacation in Hawaii now and have come to observe another very curious behavior of people these days. This behavior cannot be good for you but you see people doing it all the time. This behavior has been proven to cause high blood pressure, heart disease and even birth defects, yet people still do it regularly.


Hawaii has scenic beauty, natural forests, beautiful unspoiled beaches. Clean. Cleanliness. Unpolluted. Healthy. Natural.


Yes. Healthy and natural... Excepting for the 65% of all people over 30 years old who are overweight here. 80% of the people over 40 are obese. 


Very healthy, except for the people.... But those are the unhealthy.. There are some healthy ones. At least they look that way. Those are the the young and beautiful people who are keeping their bodies fit with exercise....


I walk along an empty beach. There's no sound except nature; the wind, the waves, the birds. Silence. It is heaven to a person who has spent over three decades in Rock music as a musician and at a Rock music radio station. On the beach here I have only the sounds of nature; it is heavenly silence and extremely calming and very healthy. My stress levels drop to zero.


Also, on these quiet beaches, runners go by every morning on their daily jog. While doing something great for their bodies, they do something terrible for their minds. They all do the same thing: They wear headphones.

One guy wore headphones in a thunderstorm...

He's lost half his hearing... Ewww!

Everyone knows the benefit of natural sounds. Everyone knows the benefit of silence. Everyone knows that sound pollution is a cause of many physical and mental disorders. Yet these people, surely surrounded by man-made industrial noise all day, choose to spend their quiet time alone blasting loud music into their ears.


Go figure.


Here's what Wikipedia says about Health Effects from Noise Pollution:

Noise health effects are the health consequences of elevated sound levels. Elevated workplace or other noise can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance and sleep disturbance. Changes in the immune system and birth defects have been attributed to noise exposure, but evidence is limited. Although some presbycusis may occur naturally with age, in many developed nations the cumulative impact of noise is sufficient to impair the hearing of a large fraction of the population over the course of a lifetime. Noise exposure has also been known to induce tinnitus, hypertension, vasoconstriction and other cardiovascular impacts. Beyond these effects, elevated noise levels can create stress, increase workplace accident rates, and stimulate aggression and other anti-social behaviors. The most significant causes are vehicle and aircraft noise, prolonged exposure to loud music, and industrial noise.

Why do people do good things for their body while doing such bad to their physiology and mind? Why do people appreciate the beauty of nature, yet they seem to not be able to appreciate the sound of nature?


It is quite odd the damage that people will voluntarily do to themselves. I'm not saying that listening to headphones is always bad. I think it might be fine to relax in contrast to, say, a ride on a packed commuter train. But when you have the rare chance to listen to nature, you'd be wise to take it.


Of course, in this article, once again, I will be attacked as some sort of "non-expert" but, like I said, over three decades in music as a paid professional makes me an expert and one of the few people who have made a good living in music. 


When music is your business and it is how you live, trust that you come to appreciate the health benefits of silence and natural sound.


I have no TV or stereo at my home and I certainly don't carry a stereo in my pocket. 


There's enough man-made noise pollution as it is. If I can hear nature and silence, I will choose that whenever and wherever possible. For your health, you should too.  

Notes and Dead Babies From the Fukushima Apocalypse

People really like to exaggerate. People really like to bend the truth to fit their agenda.


Most times that agenda is politically or financially motivated. At other times that agenda is pure and simple narcissism and those who are guilty of this are very many. These people insist upon being right no matter what and no matter how much facts get in the way.


Not being an expert on everything, and with a mass media background and much news experience, I like to stick with the facts... Just the facts.

Shell in Nigeria. For every 1 person who dies from nuclear power, 

900 will die from industrial uses of oil...

 And that doesn't include innocents killed in wars for oil.

The people who have an agenda are easier to understand than the narcissists, money is a great motivator. The motivation of a narcissist is a dark and strange place. 


Many narcissists are so often completely illogical that they write things and fail to recognize to comical nature of their comments.


In my post of June 20, entitled, Return of the Coal Industry and; Massive Health Problems and; Deaths Because of it, I wrote (and linked) to proof that about 3.3 million people a year, every year, die from pollutants from coal and oil based industrial pollutants. I also linked to proof that, per unit of energy, for every one person who has died from nuclear power, 4,000 die from coal industrial uses alone. Throw in oil and the death rate is more than 5,000 times and that doesn't include millions killed in wars for control of that oil. 

Aerial view of massive environmental destruction at Kingston Coal Factory

But the anti-nuclear crowd can't have that. They cannot argue with facts so they come up with nonsense comments. Like this one that was directed to me on Twitter:


"Is it OK for you to portray nuclear risk so low that someday coworkers will lose health, cannot feed their kids cuz they're dead?"


Yes, thank you. If you consider the level of risk so low then that is your value judgement. I portray the facts. That is what I deal in. What do you have to say about the fact that many more people die from coal or oil pollution than nuclear power? 


Also, those people working at Fukushima are not slave workers. This is not ancient Egypt or 18th century slave nations. Those people can quit that job anytime they wish. If they die? Well, have you never heard of life insurance? It was created for just such unforeseen emergencies as, well.... death.


Or is that case different if, as you say they "cannot feed their kids cuz they're dead," due to a much larger killer than nuclear energy; the coal industry and oil industry? Where are your protests about that which is demonstrated and proven as a bigger killer and destroyer of our environment?


By the way, I've noticed that protesting the oil industry is not the trendy flavor of the week... It sure was in the 1970's!


I sure do wish school's would start teaching math and logic as well as critical thinking skills. Our world sure could use it.... 


Sigh...


In a post yesterday, I blasted a writer for calling Fukushima "Japan's nuclear apocalypse."


It is total and complete nonsense to hyper bloviate and call Fukushima a "nuclear apocalypse." That's just total and complete rubbish.


I already explained what the definition of apocalypse is. It is defined as: "imminent destruction of the world and the salvation of the righteous. There's also great or total devastation and doom." 


Get that? Destruction of the world. Doom. Death. Everyone dead. This is not a fender bender.


About the BP Oil spill, some writers were even calling that an apocalyptic event. Total deaths? 11 so far. Many health issues and many more deaths to come most probably. But factually, only 11 so far. You call that apocalypse?


They called Chernobyl "apocalypse" too. So far, the total number of predicted dead from Chernobyl? According to the Chernobyl Forum: 4,000. You call that apocalypse? Very unfortunate for those who died, but hardly what I'd call "apocalypse." 


There's been a litany of events over the past 150 years that have been called apocalypse. The biggest one that comes to mind was World War II. How many people were killed in WWII? Over 60 million. 


They called that one apocalypse too. 60 million is a lot of deaths, but still not the apocalypse. Last I looked humanity was still infesting this planet. 


Words have meanings and when those words are misused, they become tools of propaganda. Intelligent people would be wise to take notice. Chernobyl happened over 25 years ago. They called that apocalypse? Laughable. Did you know that, since Chernobyl, over 17,500,000 people have died in car accidents worldwide? Over 1.2 million people per year and over 3,200 people per day die in car accidents worldwide! I suppose if we are going to be so loose with our terminology I could say that if you want to avoid the apocalypse, then you'll want stay out of your car and off the roads.


The total number of deaths from the Fukushima "Nuclear apocalypse" so far? 


Zero.


And this event at Fukushima some are calling "Japan's nuclear apocalypse"? Pardon me if I do not soil my pants in fear like some people are doing.




NOTE: Finally a big thanks to Michael Distacio of Rock Challenge Japan for reminding me of this great article. It heartens me that Scientific American, a journal of science publication, criticized the same article as I did. The only difference is that while I railed on Arnie Gundersen's nonsense. The Scientific American took other scientists to task:  


"...physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and [sic] may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.” The implication is clear: Radioactive fallout from the plant is spreading across the Pacific in sufficient quantities to imperil the lives of children (and presumably the rest of us as well)."


(snip)


That data is publicly available, and a check reveals that the authors’ statistical claims are critically flawed—if not deliberate mistruths.


Read more here.