Radiophobia

[2][3] In 1931, radiophobia was referred to in The Salt Lake Tribune as a "fear of loudspeakers",[4] an affliction that Joan Crawford was reported as suffering.

In a newspaper column published in 1970, Dr Harold Pettit MD wrote:"A healthy respect for the hazards of radiation is desirable.

When atomic testing began in the early 1950s, these hazards were grossly exaggerated, producing a new psychological disorder which has been called "radiophobia" or "nuclear neurosis".

Approximately 2 weeks after the test and fallout exposure, the 23-member fishing crew began to fall ill with acute radiation sickness, largely brought on by beta burns caused by the direct contact their bare hands had scooping the Bikini snow into bags.

With the publication of Joseph Rotblat's findings that the contamination caused by the fallout from the Castle Bravo test was nearly a thousand times greater than that stated officially, outcry in Japan reached such a level that the incident was dubbed by some as "a second Hiroshima".

[19] The surviving crew members, and their family, would later experience prejudice and discrimination, as local people thought that radiation was contagious.

The opening scene of Gojira echoes the story of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, from the initial distant flash of light to survivors being found with radiation burns.

Although he found the special effects unconvincing, Roger Ebert stated that the film was "an important one" and "properly decoded, was the Fahrenheit 9/11 of its time.

"[20] A year after the Castle Bravo test, Akira Kurosawa examined one person's unreasoning terror of radiation and nuclear war in his 1955 film I Live in Fear.

Nevil Shute's 1957 novel On the Beach depicts a future just six years later, based on the premise that a nuclear war has released so much radioactive fallout that all life in the Northern Hemisphere has been killed.

This underlines the importance of public debate, the role of the mass media and of the way in which National Health authorities participate in this debate.In Greece, following the accident there was panic and false rumors which led to many obstetricians initially thinking it prudent to interrupt otherwise wanted pregnancies and/or were unable to resist requests from worried pregnant mothers over fears of radiation; within a few weeks misconceptions within the medical profession were largely cleared up, although worries persisted in the general population.

[33][34] "My former colleague, William Clark, has likened the public’s frenzy over small environmental insults to the fear of witches in the later Middle Ages.

[24] British medical scientist Geraldine Thomas has also attributed suffering of the Japanese to radiophobia in interviews and formal presentations.

[39] At the same time as part of the public fears radiation, some commercial products are also promoted on the basis of their radioactive content, such as "negative ion" bracelets or radon spas.

Advising patients and other irradiated persons of the various radiation protection measures that are enforced, including the use of lead-rubber aprons, dosimetry and Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) is a common method of informing and reassuring radiophobia sufferers.