Bogus BBC Fukushima radiation texts panic the Philippines
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Hoax BBC text messages are claiming that radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has begun spreading in the Philippines.
Authorities in Manila were obliged to issue an official denial over the SMS messages, which are entirely bogus. The put-up messages (extract below) advise recipients to stay indoors, and to start taking unnecessary medical precautions.
BBC Flashnews: Japan gov't confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. Remain indoors first 24hours. Close doors and windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precaution, radiation may hit Philippines.
The supposed news flash is reckoned to be the work of pranksters, whose actions forced the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology to put out a statement designed to quell public fears.
"The advice circulating that people should stay indoors and to wear raincoats if they go outdoors has no basis and did not come from DOST or the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Center," it said.
The rumour was plausible enough for some companies and schools to start sending people home, net security firm Sophos reports.
The security firm advises people to check with official sources rather than relying on randomly forwarded messages for advice. The hoax messages went out in both English and Filipino, and some of the English language versions of the messages have been forwarded on to other Asian countries, including The Maldives.
Superheated and highly pressurised gases caused explosions of the outer hulls of a number of reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plants, but the reactors themselves remain intact and meltdown has been averted following the failure of cooling systems caused by Friday's mighty earthquake and resulting tsunami off the coast of north eastern Japan.
Low-life scum have quickly taken advantage of the disaster in attempts to ensnare surfers looking for news within scareware portals. More recently fake donation websites have been established, Trend Micro warns. Spam emails invite would-be marks to donate to the bogus site. ®
COMMENTS
Low life scum...
I think you spelt that wrong...
It is actually spelt "Complete and utter compasionless c#nts who should be dropped on the reactors to be used as shielding"...
... and followers of 'expert' Chris Busby?
BBC News 24 itself is not without blame in spreading panic. So-called 'Professor' Chris Busby appeared at around 6 pm on Monday, 14th. March.
He claimed that if plutonium should escape from one of the Japanese reactors which uses MOX fuel then this would not be detectable. Although, as he said, is is not easy to detect short-range alpha particles because they are stopped by even a few centimetres of air, it is utterly implausible that a significant release of plutonium would go unnoticed.
A quick internet search for [detection plutonium air-filter] brings up a good few references to standard methods. It would also be possible to infer the presence of Pu from the easily recognisable signature of its decay products. And finally, any release of Pu from a reactor would be accompanied by various other radioactive elements which would be swiftly detected.
His second claim, equally bogus, was that if there were to be a meltdown such that the containment were to be breached then this might result in a nuclear explosion.
Meanwhile, the list of sites on the internet quoting this 'top radiation expert' is growing. My search for [Chris-Busby radiation] for the past 24 hours at 12:30 GMT on Google currently shows about 70 hits.
Some of the people spreading scare stories are likely to be the same ones who last year promoted the claim that the increase in illness and birth deformity in Fallujah was caused by depleted uranium from weapons. The end result there has presumably been that the rather severe problem of chemical pollution remains largely unaddressed.
I don't like to make jokes about a serious subject
...but I just can't help thinking of the C. Montgomery Burns classic line,
"Oh, 'meltdown' is one of those annoying buzzwords... I prefer to call it an 'unrequested fission surplus' "
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