I had a rather awkward but funny phone call at work 2 days ago by a medical doctor who was seeking some advise on his car service. Considering I am not a mechanic, I work at a university and my experience is rather limited in servicing even my own car, the whole set of questions (at least the first two or three) really puzzled me.
He called the department secretary to find out a professor or some staff that could help him decide if he could trust the original spare parts coming from Japan for his Toyota in favor to the european-made alternatives. The reason was of course his anxiety about Fukushima Daichi and the potential impact the accident had on the car industry. He was somewhat terrified he could not judge the situation all by himself (him being a medical doctor) and his lack of confidence was rather obvious. He said he could not trust the routine checks at the Greek ports, he did not believe the radiation in the spare parts is harmless, he could not even trust my professional opinion until I became rather irritated. He told me somebody told him that Japan destroyed a thousand brand new cars just after the accident because they had been infected by radiation released in the Fukushima accident.
After about 10 min of answering the same questions I told him I had nothing else to add to the story. I am not sure if he believed me, but the whole incident reveals a rather awkward situation going on around the country, but also around the world, I believe. The reason is the invisibility of the radiation hazard that makes it rather difficult to digest. People have no common sense on what the impact of radiation on the general population is, a fact that becomes even harder to confront considering supersition, rumors and of course absense of a scientific background (I can not guarantee the latter is adequate when one sees my students’ answers to the same questions – despair!).
To all of you: please do not panic. To all doctors: Open up a medical physics book and read the first introductory chapter. Things are better than you think they are
