'Radioactive Rain' Unleashed on Massachusetts

There's no threat to anyone, of course, but hey, why not put a little scare into the folks?

State health officials said the fallout from crippled Japanese nuclear reactors has unleashed a radioactive rain over the Bay State, but they insisted levels are too low to pose a threat to health.

“The drinking water supply in Massachusetts is unaffected by this short-term, slight elevation in radiation,” said Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach. “However, we will carefully monitor the drinking water as we exercise an abundance of caution.”

Auerbach said routine sampling of rainwater last week in Massachusetts as well as California, Pennsylvania and Washington all showed similar elevated levels of radioiodine-131. Air samples in the same Massachusetts location showed no elevated levels. Health officials declined to reveal the town where the sample was taken.

Ronald Ballinger, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, agreed that fallout from the crippled Japanese reactors is not dangerous to the continental United States. He said even if the plant were to melt down, the radiation making its way to the Bay State would be unlikely to reach a level dangerous to humans. These levels, he said, are nothing to worry about.

“The concentrations are so low as to be absurd,” Ballinger said, when contacted by the Herald. “The event is pretty much contained, right now. They have power back to the site.”

So concentrations are so low as to be absurd, there's no threat to anyone and there's nothing to worry about.

So why is this guy even holding a press conference?