First, let me preface by stating that I have been driving for 15 years throughout Illinois, Kentucky, Misery (ere, sorry, Missouri), Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and both Upper and Lower Michigan with the lion’s share of that driving in and around Chicago. During that time, most of my driving has been with the assistance of a radar/laser detector (I use the Passport 8500 which was the top of the line at the time I bought it, before that one I had a passport as well, and my next will also probably be a passport.)
That said, why is it one cannot drive more then 15 feet without being bathed in radar in this country??? We hear day and night how trans fats are causing cancer, or MSG is causing cancer, or smoking causes cancer, etc and we’re bombarded on a daily basis of horror stories about how cancer is rising exponentially in this country and why can we not find a cure.
I have a cure for you. If X-Rays have been linked to cancer, then what in the world makes you think Ka-Band radiation, K-Band radiation and X-Band radiation ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CANCER AT ALL!?!? What, X-Rays bad, SOLAR radiation BAD (both UVA and UVB) but Ka, K and X band radiation is magically delicious??? WTF!
There are how many stories of police officers with testicular cancer because they held their radar guns in their laps??? Now they have to be bolted to the windshield! RADAR GUNS GIVE COPS CANCER!!! If they give cops cancer, and we’re bathed in it continually from the time we leave our house to the time we come back (and not always from radar guns, automatic doors use them too as do stoplight cameras) then what makes you think that these radar sources are not the root cause of the increase in cancer in Americans?
What was the cancer rate in 1929? What is it today? What changed? Well, lots of things changed, but I abso-frakkin guarantee you that you were not bombarded with focused radiation beams 24/7 as you drove around doing your errands in 1929!
Not posted with the intent to flame but…
That rant sounds like someone who got nailed for breaking the law (i.e. speeding) DESPITE devices designed to prevent such fines…
Obey the speeding laws, and your local state troopers will not point their radar guns at you. Even if you DO speed, the radiation from your cell phone is of far greater concern as you press it to your ear than that radar gun that is hundreds of yards away…
:roll:
The Pyramids caused it.
The world’s oldest documented case of cancer hails from ancient Egypt, in 1500 b.c. The details were recorded on a papyrus, documenting 8 cases of tumors occurring on the breast. It was treated by cauterization, a method to destroy tissue with a hot instrument called “the fire drill”. It was also recorded that there was no treatment for the disease, only palliative treatment.
There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians were able to tell the difference between malignant and benign tumors. According to inscriptions, surface tumors were surgically removed in a similar manner as they are removed today.
http://cancer.about.com/od/historyofcancer/a/cancerhistory.htm
sorry.
@ncscswitch:
Not posted with the intent to flame but…
That rant sounds like someone who got nailed for breaking the law (i.e. speeding) DESPITE devices designed to prevent such fines…
Obey the speeding laws, and your local state troopers will not point their radar guns at you. Even if you DO speed, the radiation from your cell phone is of far greater concern as you press it to your ear than that radar gun that is hundreds of yards away…
:roll:
Actually, it was because I was getting nailed that I bought the detector. Since I got it, I have not gotten a single speeding ticket that stood up in court. (I got one, but the judge dismissed it because the officer could not produce the radar gun results, I also wanted it dismissed because the officer himself did not appear, his representative appeared. I thought we get to face our accusers, but oh well.)
No, actually, it annoys the hell out of me when it goes off. No sooner do you hit the mute button (after making sure you set your cruise control correctly on the right speed limit of course!) then it goes off again! As I said, it’s not just police cars that are shooting off radar, drive thrus, garages (commercial), automatic doors, etc.
Of course, it doesn’t help when you’re sitting in a drive-thru and an undercover idiot pulls in behind you with HIS GUN STILL ON. Who the hell CAN PHYSICALLY SPEED IN A DRIVE THRU LANE DURING THE LUNCH HOUR!?!?!? Honestly, TURN OFF THE RADAR people!
I swear to all the gods, both real and imagined, that if I get breast cancer I am suing someone!
I drive 50,000+ miles per year.
I have no problem with Radar (no speeding tickets since 1998).
Of course, I do no go more than 4 mph over the posted limit… but that does seem to work.
And I am FAR more concerned about my cell phone that is pressed against my ear 3 hours a day than I am that state trooper radar that I just passed through for 30 seconds…
:roll:
@ncscswitch:
Of course, I do no go more than 4 mph over the posted limit… but that does seem to work.
I generally do 50 in a 35, up to 80 to 90 in a 55 to 65 and have never gotten a ticket. Speed limits should be raised by 10 MPH, right now they serve as minimums not maximums. If someone is doing the speed limit everyone behind generally wants to pass them. But then again I live down here in uncivilized South Cackalacky (Carolina). I have done a bit of driving up in your beloved NC, though, and haven’t seen much difference.
This really has nothing to do with speed traps though, guys. Police radar is just one source of all the man-made radiation bombarding us and our children on a daily basis.
What this is really about is that I believe that the rise of cancer in America is due to the massive doses of radiation inflicted upon us from various sources (speed traps, automatic doors, etc) throughout the day and not due to what we ingest (except for the rare cases of cigarettes or other things we know 100% do cause cancer in some people.)
We’re told that trans-fats cause cancer, that MSGs cause cancer, that caramel color and red number 40 cause cancer. We terrorize our children making them believe that getting a solitary sun burn is going to result in them dying by age 10 of skin cancer, and yet, we subject those very same children to radiation on a constant and consistent basis. From the medal detectors in their schools, to the radiation outside while they play, to the radiation emitted from their school buses.
Sure, the sun is a source of radiation, but would it be any where near as dangerous if we were not adding significant levels of radiation to our living environment?
PS: I am currently driving about 36k miles a year. I used to drive much closer to 80-90k a year. I always ping my cruise control at the speed limit, that way on a decline I should not exceed 5 over the limit (which is a pretty standard grace area given by the police) and I really don’t have to worry since the semi-trucks out here are doing 80-90 MPH on a routine basis. Trucking is the number one source of funds for our state sheriffs.
@Cmdr:
I have a cure for you. If X-Rays have been linked to cancer, then what in the world makes you think Ka-Band radiation, K-Band radiation and X-Band radiation ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CANCER AT ALL!?!? What, X-Rays bad, SOLAR radiation BAD (both UVA and UVB) but Ka, K and X band radiation is magically delicious??? WTF!
High frequency radiation has been scientifically proven to cause cancer because it destroys genetic makeup. Not all electromagnetic radiation applied productive falls into this category, such as your example of radio waves. There is no proof that it causes cancer…doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, just that if it does it is so negligible that it’s not even showing up on the radar (pun intended).
There are how many stories of police officers with testicular cancer because they held their radar guns in their laps??? Now they have to be bolted to the windshield! RADAR GUNS GIVE COPS CANCER!!! If they give cops cancer, and we’re bathed in it continually from the time we leave our house to the time we come back (and not always from radar guns, automatic doors use them too as do stoplight cameras) then what makes you think that these radar sources are not the root cause of the increase in cancer in Americans?
While there is some evidence of this being true with radar guns, the reality is the majority of people aren’t exposed to it enough to make it an issue. We are not “bathed in it continually.”
What was the cancer rate in 1929? What is it today? What changed? Well, lots of things changed, but I abso-frakkin guarantee you that you were not bombarded with focused radiation beams 24/7 as you drove around doing your errands in 1929!
The sun existed in 1929. At least I heard it did.
@ncscswitch:
Not posted with the intent to flame but…
That rant sounds like someone who got nailed for breaking the law (i.e. speeding) DESPITE devices designed to prevent such fines…
Obey the speeding laws, and your local state troopers will not point their radar guns at you. Even if you DO speed, the radiation from your cell phone is of far greater concern as you press it to your ear than that radar gun that is hundreds of yards away…
:roll:
Bingo, exactly what I thought. I get by just fine without one, as have millions of people, and if you obey the law you don’t need it.
@Cmdr:
Actually, it was because I was getting nailed that I bought the detector. Since I got it, I have not gotten a single speeding ticket that stood up in court. (I got one, but the judge dismissed it because the officer could not produce the radar gun results, I also wanted it dismissed because the officer himself did not appear, his representative appeared. I thought we get to face our accusers, but oh well.)
The question here, Jenn, is why the hell are you getting pulled over so much? Perhaps you should work on obeying the law.
I swear to all the gods, both real and imagined, that if I get breast cancer I am suing someone!
This statement is very telling. For what it’s worth, I hope that you or yours never have to deal with cancer.
Jermo:
You missed quite a lot and took a few things out of context, to be honest about it.
I am not getting pulled over so much. The last ticket I received was in 1996 and it was dismissed. I also never claimed the sun was not around in 1929. In fact, I mentioned that the sun was around back then and cancer rates were much lower than they are today, so it cannot be a factor in the cancer rates. I also did not mention radio waves. FM/AM frequencies have never, to my knowledge, been linked to cancer. I believe that statement of yours was intended to make my argument look foolish, but I never stated it to begin with as a cause of cancer.
Anyway, in reality:
Ka, K and X Band radar frequencies have been linked, conclusively, to cancer.
When driving in the midwest (and I listed the states above) I cannot go more than 5 seconds without hitting the mute button on my detector, therefore, it is logical to assume that the people of the region are being bombarded by Ka, K and X-Band radiation on a continual and consistent basis.
Adding those bands damage to the damage caused by UVA and UVB solar radiation (which everyone outside is exposed too regardless of presence of law enforcement or garage doors or automatic door openers or any of the other sources of Ka, K and X band radar) could very easily tip the scales in favor of people becoming cancerous. In a vacuum with absolutely no other sources of radiation present, you might be fine with all the Ka, K and X band radar. But once you add in real life and real radioactive sources, do you really think all this other radiation has nothing to do with cancer?
Honestly, if smoking a weed can cause cancer, if getting a few x-rays every week for a long period of time can cause cancer, if getting sunburned can cause cancer, don’t you think that all this radar we are being bathed in could cause cancer? Especially given that it’s been proven in a court of law (law suits found in favor of officers who got testicular cancer from radar guns) that Ka, K and X band radar does cause cancer?
All I am doing is suggesting that maybe we realize that radar is causing cancer and stop blaming harmless things like chicken eggs, not eating enough broccoli or the other non-sensible things attributed to the rise of cancer in this nation.
When you have a 2X4 stuck in your chest, I don’t think the fact you ate 5 Big Macs a day is why your heart failed. Maybe, but I think we ought to at least see if the 2X4 killed you before the fat from those Big Macs, huh? That’s all I’m saying.
For a brief period I worked in a nuclear power facility. The first three weeks I worked there all we did was take classes on how radiation works and how to turn nuclear power into electrical power.
A group called ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) I think they are run by the feds but it may have been by the Constellation Energy Group. They very closely monitored every ones exposure.
I have to say they did a very good job of it. I left there in March of 2007 and in January of 2008 I was mailed a list of how much radiation I was exposed to and on what days.
ALARA said that humans can safely be exposed to 4,500 millirems per year. The Federal Nuclear Regulatory Committee limits the exposure of nuclear facility workers to 2,500 millirems per year.
I am going to tell you right now that I have been exposed to over 500 millirems in one 12-hour shift when I was working in the reactor room shortly after they started coasting it down. So don’t get me wrong I am a big fan of monitoring people’s exposure to harmful radiation.
They use three things to measure the quantity of radiation you can become exposed to they are: distance, duration and potency (potency isn’t the word they use but I think it gets the point a crossed.)
Radiation does keep building up in your body but it has a sliding window. The radiation you carry in the form of millirems will break down over the course of a year give or take depending on the person’s age, health, size (both muscular and obesity play a role) and a few other variables. Healthy, lean, senior citizens will recover much quicker then sickly, fat children.
Another valid point that I think needs to be made is that there are several forms of natural radiation naturally found in the environment. Potassium is a naturally radioactive material. Do you worry about the bananas in you kitchen exposing your children? Cosmic radiation is probably the most constant most humans will get in their lives. The higher the elevation you live at the higher the does you are going to get. At sea level you will get about 26 mrem a year. If you live at 8,000 – 9,000 ft above sea level you get as much as 96 mrem a year.
Here is an interesting site that can help you measure an approximant annual does:
http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/
My point is that with or with out the “help” of mankind you are already constantly exposed to radiation. The key thing you need to look at is if it is ionizing or non-ionizing radiation.
@Cmdr:
Jermo:
You missed quite a lot and took a few things out of context, to be honest about it.
I don’t see where I took anything “out of context,” but ok…
I am not getting pulled over so much. The last ticket I received was in 1996 and it was dismissed.
I took the “Since I got it, I have not gotten a single speeding ticket that stood up in court” as meaning you’ve been pulled over multiple times with a speeding ticket. It’s reasonable to assume that you bought a radar detector to give you a heads-up when you are doing something that may get you pulled over, the same reasoning everyone else that buys one has.
I also never claimed the sun was not around in 1929. In fact, I mentioned that the sun was around back then and cancer rates were much lower than they are today, so it cannot be a factor in the cancer rates.
I just made a counterpoint to your statement that people weren’t being bombarded with radiation in 1929. They were: from sun and space. That’s the majority of your background radiation exposure right there. Man-made sources are a drop in the bucket compared to that.
I also did not mention radio waves. FM/AM frequencies have never, to my knowledge, been linked to cancer. I believe that statement of yours was intended to make my argument look foolish, but I never stated it to begin with as a cause of cancer.
Actually, you did mention radio waves. FM/AM aren’t the only frequencies in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. X, K, and Ka are all radio waves, and are FAR below the frequency of X-rays.
Ka, K and X Band radar frequencies have been linked, conclusively, to cancer.
This is where your argument is dead in the water. There is no such evidence.
Honestly, if smoking a weed can cause cancer
:lol: It doesn’t and actually has been shown to shrink tumors.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
Especially given that it’s been proven in a court of law (law suits found in favor of officers who got testicular cancer from radar guns) that Ka, K and X band radar does cause cancer?
I’m not sure how to handle this statement. First, I’ve seen nothing where it’s been proven period. Second, there is no evidence of a lawsuit you claim that I can find, so if you have it, please show it (and reproductions when these claims have been made have shown that they do not cause cancer). Third, and I think the most boggling to me, is since when do courts of law prove anything? They don’t.
Courts of law are supposed to prove you are not guilty. Otherwise, if you are not proven not guilty, then you are assumed to be innocent. So courts of law do, in fact, prove things every day in this country.
As for getting the radar detector, it was a preventive move which does not mean I was getting dozens of tickets daily (ridiculous number to demonstrate point, not a number that you used or even implied). I can remember getting three tickets in my life.
2) I was speeding in a construction zone when I was about 21 in Wisconsin. Of course, the construction zone in question was two orange cones flanking a police officer and there was no construction equipment, debris or evidence outside of that. (This is also known as Driving with Illinois Plates in Wisconsin - a class A felony!). I ended up having to pay that one, but it was downgraded to 3 miles over the posted limit and reference to construction zone was discarded.
3) I was speeding (excessively) in Hoffman Estates. I had to have been doing 50-55 in a 30. But this ticket was discarded because the officer who wrote the citation did not show up to court, but rather sent another officer to take her place as a “representative of the department.” However, I not only argued that under the Constitution I have a right to face my accuser, but I also argued that unless that representative wrote everyone’s tickets that day, no one should be liable for their tickets. I was a very welcome person to every defendant on that day and I am quite proud of myself. ^_^
That said, I do in fact see officers all day long in unmarked and marked cars blasting us with radiation on a continual basis. Whether or not it’s of a strong enough intensity to cause cancer I don’t know. But that, in addition to solar radiation (which is blamed for skin cancer) and radiation from the environment that sets off the detector that is not from a police vehicle really should be investigated to say the least! We know radar guns cause testicular cancer in police officers and breast cancer in police officers, so it’s not like the radiation in their speed guns is harmless to human life. The question is, is that source of radiation the straw that broke the camel’s back and the reason cancer rates as a whole are rising in this nation?
I, for one, at least find it more plausible that radar guns are more to blame for cancer than eggs, what oil you use when cooking, and other non-radioactive substances.
On LT’s calculator I am just over 2000 REM.
However, there is no function for Radar exposure. Perhaps every 5 times my Ka band goes off I should add 1 X-Ray and every 10 times my k band fires I should add 1 X-Ray and every 20 times my x band goes off I should add 1 X-Ray? (Dunno, that’s the problem. How does Ka, K and X Band radiation translate into X-Rays? We know X-Rays are a cause of cancer and we know Ka, K and X bands all cause cancer. What we don’t have studies to show is how much Ka, K and X bands the average human can withstand before cancer is formed.)
