Radiation

An odd anecdote I came across in the Seattle Times:

It turns out the feds have been monitoring Interstate 5 for nuclear “dirty bombs.” They do it with radiation detectors so sensitive it led to the following incident.

“Vehicle goes by at 70 miles per hour,” Giuliano told the crowd. “Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope [in the passing car].”

The agent raced after the car, pulling it over not far from the monitoring spot (near the Bow-Edison exit, 18 miles south of Bellingham). The agent questioned the driver, then did a cursory search of the car, Giuliano said.

Did he find a nuke?

“Turned out to be a cat with cancer that had undergone a radiological treatment three days earlier,” Giuliano said.

This anecdote was shared at a community meeting that Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat attended. The meeting was held to address concerns by San Juan County, Washington residents over being harassed by border agents to prove immigration status. (San Juan County is made up of a group of islands between Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and the mainland of Washington State.)

I suppose that it’s a good thing that the feds are monitoring for the sorts of contraband that are legitimately concerning. However, I also have to admit that I share Mr. Westneat’s concerns about the pervasiveness of government monitoring.

However, I do take comfort from another comment in the story. Deputy Chief Giuliano, the number 2 guy for that stretch of the U.S.-Canadian frontier, has his own reservations about the authority he seemingly could wield:

Yet even he, a federal agent for 35 years, is queasy about the snooping’s reach. He said he opposes parts of the Patriot Act, namely the section that expands warrantless searches.

“I think we can do this without tossing out our checks and balances,” he said.

Although I’d be mostly unwilling to give up my wireless gadgetry, considering how obnoxious some cellular carriers can be about siting antennas, this post at Treehugger about a cellular-free neighborhood in Israel does have a certain appeal:

In tiny Israel, where cellular relay towers dot the landscape, cellular phone usage rates are among the highest in the world. Lately, however, a backlash has developed, both against the cartel-like behavior of the cellular providers and the possible health effects of non-ionizing radiation.

This week a revolutionary initiative was unveiled: a new neighborhood for 1,500 families who have decided to give up their cell phones. An entire neighborhood with no cellular reception.[...]

In addition to the lack of reception, which will be compensated for by scattering public phones around the neighborhood, city planners have integrated several ecocity concepts into the neighborhood’s planning, making it rather innovative in the Israeli context. The neighborhood will be carfree, with large parking lots on its edges and shuttles taking residents from their homes to their cars. Around 40% of the neighborhood’s power will come from a small solar power plant, the rest from natural gas. Houses will be built from environmentally-friendly materials and outfitted with water and trash recycling mechanisms.

I realize that there are several schools of thought when it comes to the potential health effects of cellular radiation and other EM sources that have emerged in the past several years. However, I can see a potential market for such EM-minimized residences.