My Mom’s lack of science knowledge baffles me

So this weekend I was at home and like usual my mom was glued to Fox News. Pretty much the only version on the news my Mom consumes is Fox’s version. She pretty much buys into all the scare tactics they use. She now believes that everybody in Japan will have cancer within a month. We were watching Fox News and they we talking to two supposed nuclear experts. They let the first guy talk all his doom and gloom worst case scenario stuff, then the other guy started talking more reality and common sense, and of course they had to cut him of for a commercial break. It’s that kind of journalism that drives me nuts, and everybody does it.

I have been really interested in the science behind the nuclear disaster in Japan, and have read a ton about it. It’s scary and could be bad, but if handled properly the short term higher levels of radiation are harmless.

In the past I have tried to explain to my Mom the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing radiation has yet to be found harmful. It doesn’t carry enough energy to affect atoms. That is why there is slim to none chance that cell phones cause cancer. My Mom still believes that we are all going to get brain cancer and she hates the fact that I keep my phone in my pocket. Of course nuclear radiation is ionizing, but people can handle low levels of it just fine without increased cancer risk.

When it was discovered that spinach and milk in Japan had nuclear materials in them her fears escaladed even more. I told her it was great that they discovered that so they can keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get worse, but the amounts they found probably are harmless. I think I read if they drank the contaminated milk for a year it would be the equivalent of a CT scan, and eating the spinach would be 1/5th of a CT scan. I tried to explain to her that there is background radiation all around us and some of her food probably has radioactive elements in them. That was before I knew about bananas, so I was right.

Then she said “Nuclear radiation is much worse. It’s not like the radiation the Sun puts out.”

I then did a mental facepalm. I didn’t feel like breaking the news to her that the Sun is basically a giant nuclear reactor. My Mom is smart, she has her masters degree, but her lack of science knowledge is baffling.