Whap - You're X-Rayed
July 1969 Electronics World

June 1969 Electronics World   Table of Contents  Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Electronics World, published May 1959 - December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

If you think science-challenged politicians grandstanding in the media to gain - ostensibly, but unfortunately likely - favor with their constituents is a new phenomenon, take a look at this. On almost a daily basis these days we have elected doofuses pretending to be experts in physics, climatology, chemistry, medicine, economics, and other realms of learned science, when all they are really are mouthpieces for special interest lobbyists whose clients have lots of money for elections. At the risk of being too repetitive, I have to point out the brilliant congressman from Georgia who thought that the island of Guam might tip over if too many heavy military vehicles were placed on it.

Whap - You're X-Rayed

Get your x-ray picture taken. Put a piece of film behind you and sit in front of a color-TV set... That's what two U.S. Congressmen imply. They call for Government action against what they keep calling "hazardous" x-radiation from older color sets. Facts make their position overstated. You'd have to sit in front of the set continuously, with the high voltage almost impossibly misadjusted, for over four months just to get the same amount of x-radiation you get in a normal chest x-ray. And, since even the worst color-set x-rays are soft, with very low energy, you'd still be disappointed; they wouldn't penetrate you enough to ever reach the film.

Sorry to get your hopes up. Pretending that color-TV x-rays are a menace to health can only grab headlines. The only problem these x-rays have created is the one of trying to quiet the fears of people who have read misleading publicity about them. (P.S. Now the Public Health Service is planning to test devices used in schools for radiation.)

Posted February 8, 2018