BLOG

Cars in Tokyo Have High Radiation in Air Filters!?

Arnie Gundersen says something really stupid again. Now he claims that there is dangerous radioactive “Hot Particles” in Tokyo car air filters and that this radiation is deadly yet it cannot be detected. This is getting really ridiculous. Seriously, is this old age, dementia or Alzheimer’s with this guy?

His most recent idiocy is on Al Jazeera with an article entitled, Fukushima: It’s much worse than you think.

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

No. Gundersen, besides normal levels, there no “common” radiation finding in car filters in Tokyo. Fukushima is not much worse than we think. Your wild imagination and fast progressing senility is much worse than we, or even you, think.


“Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common”!? That’s just total and complete bullshit. Jeez Louise, Gundersen, the ground around us emits natural radiation! So does the sun! I’m sure that all cars emit some levels of radiation. It is a course of common sense.

Are these levels of radiation dangerous or something to be concerned about? Not according to the University of Washington. But facts haven’t stopped Gundersen yet from auditioning for the lead role in the new Chicken Little movie…

Well, I think, Arnie, you are failing miserably. If anything, the more you talk, the dumber you look.

Just to show you what a crock of sh*t this idiocy Gundersen is saying is, I just did a Japanese language Google search looking for “車のエアフィルター 放射能.” (In English this is “Automobile air filter + radiation”). There are zero results for this search excepting articles that refer to Gundersen as a source. Get that? Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Gundersen, you are caught red-handed! You are making up sh*t again.

Here’s a screen capture of all results:

%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%EF%BC%882011-06-17+12.48.09%EF%BC%89.png

Are there any readers and Gundersen fanatics who do not believe me? Here’s a shortened URL to the Google search: http://bit.ly/lUUYH0. I hope that, by now, dear reader knows how to use Google Translation.

The Al Jazeera article continues with more fluff about dangers:

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

“We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo,” he said. “Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters.”

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

“These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant,” he explained, “One cigarette doesn’t get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can’t measure them with a Geiger counter.

Wait a minute, Grandpa! You just put your foot in your mouth again… What’s this? You are quoted as saying at least three stupid things in one breath here:

In one part you say about “Hot particles” that:

“Scientists are finding these everywhere.”

Yet, you do not name these scientists. All the while you say that these “Hot Particles” are dangerous you also claim:

“…you can’t measure them (hot particles) with a Geiger counter.”

Riiiiiiight. They are radioactive and dangerous but we can’t measure them witha Geiger counter!? Earth to Gundersen! Earth to Gundersen! According to Wikipedia about “Hot Particles”, under the heading “Attributes” it clearly states:

Hot particles can be identified by a Geiger counter, or by autoradiography. Their age and origin can be determined by their isotopic signature.

In a previous article, Gundersen makes another unsubstantiated claim. It is an audio interview with him. Here’s a snippet from an interview with another fool named Chris Martenson who needs a convenient slap right up side the head too:

“Arnie Gundersen said he received 7 used auto air filters that came from Tokyo, probably from a repair shop. Five of them had no traces of radiation, but two of them were heavily irradiated. He said the fallout will be patchy…”

OK. I’m game, Arnie, old boy. Just how did you detect these Hot Particles in air filters “from Tokyo” (by the way, do you have a receipt and proof they are from Tokyo?) when you claim that the radiation, which is normally detected with a Geiger counter, is not detectable with a Geiger counter? Are you using some sort of sodium iodide crystal device or Ion chamber? Or is it just alchemy or some sort of magic potion?

If your results would stand up to scrutiny, then why don’t you make these results public (a Youtube video would be great – you seem to like being on Youtube) and also why can’t you make these claims available for confirmation by other scientists (and no, I don’t mean the “scientists” that you always refer to but never name) using the Scientific Method?

Or do we all have to go and take your word for it?… The word of a guy who makes claims about all sorts of things using “anecdotal evidence” mysterious “sources” and other claims as proof?

It gets even more silly… Gundersen goes on to compare the dangers of “Hot Particles” in car filters to to the dangers of… are you ready for it?… Cigarette smoking!!! Laughable!

One cigarette doesn’t get you, but over time they do.”

So, what you are saying Gundersen is that, besides not being able to keep your  story straight, with all the pollutants in our foods, water, industrial contaminants in the air and chemicals in our over processed foods, you think that this most recent news from your “sources” (Guffaw!) is cause enough for you to scare people and cause hysteria because the level of radiation is comparable to smoking cigarettes over a long time?

arnie+gundersen.jpg

This guy looks well over 75, maybe 80. Is anyone surprised when

an over 75-year-old guy says some pretty wild stuff?

Oh please! Someone make sure Grandpa Gundersen gets his rest and makes sure he properly takes his meds everyday and on time. This guy is losing it quickly.

Grandpa, you idiot. Why don’t you warn people about heart disease or high blood pressure? That kills tens of thousands more times the numbers of people annually than cigarette smoking does. From the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention here’s the numbers for deaths of the leading causes of deaths (2007):

  • Heart disease: 616,067
  • Cancer: 562,875
  • Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
  • Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
  • Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706

From the same site, in 1990, deaths attributed to smoking were, get this… 5,619! That’s the most recent information I could find. Sales of cigarettes and tobacco products keep declining every year so I imagine that they’ve found it a waste of money to keep track of this anymore.

But Gundersen wants to compare the big bad “Hot Particles” to the evils of smoking when you have over a 200,000% higher chance of dying from heart disease or cancers (food preservatives, chemicals, too much salt, and car accidents). I also showed the relative dangers of this in a previous post entitled: For Every One Death Due to Nuclear Power, 4,000 Die Due to Coal in which the title of the post speaks for itself.

Gee, Arnie, why don’t you do something more useful with your 15 minutes of fame and urge people to slow down and drive more safely? That would save a hell of a lot more lives than this nonsense you keep saying…

Oh, but then again, I forgot. You work in the nuclear industry advising people on how to decommission nuke plants and not as an adviser to automobile safety organizations. But, nah! You don’t have any conflicts of interest.

You are a REAL scientist!

Gundersen is a joke. I’ve already blasted Arnie for saying stupid stuff before. In Metallic Tastes in Mouths Prove Nuclear Disaster in Japan! Or Does it? I wrote:

Once again, Arnie Gundersen and a bunch of illogical panic stricken fools say something stupid about Fukushima and radiation.

They are now saying that there is “anecdotal evidence” of people having a metallic taste in their mouths and, from this, they draw the wild conclusion that this means there is an uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction going on at Fukushima. This nonsense has no basis in science, reality, nor does it have any evidence backing it up. It is fantasy..

“Anecdotal eveidence!” Isn’t that hilarious? I already showed you how he has motivation for saying this and a possible conflict of interest (making him no more credible than, say, George Bush)… And speaking of “air” and “filters” I ripped him a new air-hole when he claimed that “the winds have now shifted and are blowing from Fukushima to Tokyo.

This most recent rubbish is just plain embarrassing. I guess the mass media is now latching onto Gundersen because they realize (as I demonstrated) that their last “expert” Michio Kaku was definitely a few CDs short of a boxed set. But, they’ll soon see that Gundersen isn’t any better.

I suspect, one day soon, people are going to realize that, when it comes to Gundersen, we are talking about a senior citizen here who seems to be losing his grip on reality. Anyone who has a father or mother over 75 or so, may have had  this experience.

But I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on the old guy. I mean, think about it, they say that radiation causes all sorts of damage to the body and to the human brain. There’s no argument there. Gundersen also claims that he worked in the nuclear industry for over 38 years (something that has been proven as a gross exaggeration along with his claims of many of his other “qualifications” here)… If anything, I suppose that means that the nonsense he says is the best proof so far that radiation is damaging to humans.

OK. Let’s say that he did work at nuke plants for 38 years… That and Gundersen repeatedly spewing out unconfirmed, hysterical nonsense is a great argument that radiation does cause brain damage.