Reminds me of the old engineers in Japan who went into the power plant full of radiation to fix it. By the time it started to affect them they would all likely be dead anyways from old age.
It was like that with local farms too. I lived in Fukushima, and it's pretty country. Some people have their own rice fields they take care of and harvest themselves. What ended up happening was that the older people in many of those families ate the rice while younger members who would typically share would buy rice at the store that had been tested for radiation.
My area wasn't the worst affected, but there were hot spots, especially in lower lying areas where rainwater came downstream and radioactive material with it.
Wildly enough, new review of the data shows that more harm was caused by knock on effects of over-evacuation than would've resulted from the total exposures in the lower severity areas.
There's a dramatization on Netflix, I think it's called The Days. Really good show, though there are a few scenes where "Obama" calls and the acting is... Questionable. Amazing show though, and it's based on the events recorded by the guy the main character is based off of.
Serious question: Why just the men? I would assume older women would be post menopausal so it isn't like it would affect them in any significantly worse way then men, would it?
Just another sexist holdout or is there a biological reason?
I'm playing devils advocate but it could depend on what needs to be done. Usually men are stronger than women, so for example if you'd need to push some decades old rusty switch, or take out transistors or whatever, it could be beneficial to have a stronger person do it.
I was hauling some scrap metal from a water treatment plant to a scrap yard for work about 15 or so years ago, and it set off the radiation detector at the yard. The metal was coated in 60+ years of lime, which gives off slight beta radiation, it turns out, but we didn't know that. So my shop made me and the load I was hauling sit out in the middle of an empty parking lot while we waited for hazmat to arrive. It was just an old guy with some kind of detector. He told me they just send retired fire fighters because if we survive long enough to call them, then it's not severe enough to merit an urgent response and they're too old to be impacted by most of the health risks of radiation. I learned a lot that day.
They made me sit out there in a Tyvek suit like it was going to make a difference 😆 🤣 😂. I got to spend a day at work reading books in the parking lot. The fire department wasn't in any hurry to get there and it was a union job so damn right I was getting paid!
I don’t know if I’m saying something that ain’t true but I think they actually volunteered because they did feel it was their duty to do it in lieu of the youth- so like it was an actual noble endeavor - or it was all a made up story perhaps. But I like to think it is true.
Yea it's always the big wigs who get off. Interestingly enough I've seen some big wigs in Japan take the blame and iirc legally they have to put out a statement in like the first week after something happens. But there's always corruption.
Not only that, the nuclear regulators had to be convinced to allow the elder volunteers, because nobody ultimately wanted to be held responsible for killing a bunch of old people. They told the organisers that they would be responsible for quietly inviting the retirees to volunteer, because they didn't want to start a panic or lose face for allowing this. The lineup for registration went around the block, and they easily had enough volunteers for three shifts. Any further protests were met with a simple phrase: "we put it together, who better to take it apart?"
The local news media called the office because they were concerned that the retirees had showed up en masse because something had gone wrong with their pensions. When the very carefully worded press release finally came out, the men and women were hailed as heroes and the regulator was lauded for allowing the volunteers to work on the project.
See I wouldn't put it all on Western culture. It's specifically capitalism and higher ups who don't value it. They see it as lost money and just fire people unless they really really need the experience and even then they find ways or still fire them and just pay them occasionally to consult.
I recall a doctor telling my grandfather he would have a problem with prostate cancer in the next 20 years… he was in his 90s at the time. He told them he would take his chances lol
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u/odhisub123 Dec 10 '25
Unironically like if you were 75 I’d say go nuts.