Reactor radiation harms: Trump’s EO will make this worse

It’s time to set the record straight on radiation and the damage it causes, particularly to pregnancy, children and women. Contrary to what Trump’s recent EO claims, abundant and largely officially ignored, scientific evidence demonstrates that childhood cancers increase around normally operating nuclear facilities, with indications that these cancers begin during pregnancy. Uranium mining to get fuel for reactors, a worldwide environmental justice travesty, is associated with a number of health impacts. Even already existing background radiation is associated with childhood cancers —a fact that nuclear proponents conveniently forget— as they compound impacts by releasing radiation accidentally, and routinely, from nuclear reactors; releases USNRC has been only too happy to oblige. Clearly our current radiation standards aren’t protective ENOUGH.