George Monbiot's rabid attack on Chris Busby

George Monbiot's attacks in The Guardian, November 2011
- and he's still digging the same hole on 6th December

journalist Monbiot In May 2011 George Monbiot used his Left Hook lecture tour to make a garbled attack on Professor Chris Busby and LLRC's research on childhood leukaemia along the radioactively contaminated coast of north Wales. He refused to discuss what he meant. LLRC published a page of response.
On 21st November and 22nd November The Guardian published two poorly researched articles in which he repeated his view of the leukaemia in north Wales and widened the attack. In preparing them he bullied Busby and ignored information supplied - a statement by Richard Bramhall

Gerry Thomas On 21st November Monbiot claimed that Professor Geraldine Thomas of Imperial College, London had said:
radioactive elements do not bind to DNA which shows how little [Professor Busby] understands about basic radiobiology.
and that Professor Busby's assertion that Caesium causes heart disease was ludicrous.
and that administration of stable Calcium and Strontium is useless (in fact it's standard medical advice).
Click here for discussion
We have written to Professor Thomas asking her to whether Monbiot quoted her accurately and, if so, to retract her comments, which are all wrong. Here's the letter. She refused, saying I stand by the comments I made to George Monbiot during his research for this article
Note: this is the same Professor Thomas who, on BBC programmes during 2011, claimed that people in Great Britain were not exposed to the radiation from Chernobyl and that there will be no death toll from Fukushima.
In the same article Monbiot suggested that Professor Busby is seeking to profit financially from the distress of people in Japan by selling goods and services at inflated prices. This is far from the truth. No payments have been made to the bank account referred to. The Foundation has been blocked by legal moves in Japan and imports of the products have been banned, so there have been no sales. Even if these obstacles had not been created, the formal "non-profit" agreement between Busby and the businessman who wanted to create the Foundation was that any profits would be ploughed back into further research. Here is a statement from Professor Busby and a note on the problems of sourcing supplements.
John Steward On the 22nd November Monbiot described our findings of high child leukaemia rates in north Wales as baseless scaremonmgering. He quoted selectively from an article by Dr John Steward (left). Dr Steward is Director of the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU). Further discussion.

New International Radiation Symbol Monbiot's article on 21st November expressed a naïve faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese government's precautions. Critics in Japan have taken him to task in an email to The Guardian. Here is their message, which they copied to LLRC.

Finally, here's why we are concerned. (What is this picture? Why is it here?). As Busby points out in his statement above, these latest attacks coincide with the publication of evidence in the scientific literature pointing to a new and vile genotoxic weapon. It either incorporates a proportion of enriched Uranium or it creates enriched Uranium when it explodes. So this is not only about nuclear power but about the freedom of armies to deploy weapons which have demonstrable health effects on soldiers (on both sides), on non-combatants and on the unborn and which therefore are unequivocally illegal. See a video on this type of weapon (or paste this URL into your browser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWua6EjfImI&feature=channel_video_title )

Richard Bramhall: 27th November 2011

George is still digging the same hole on 6th December

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	In May 2011 George Monbiot used his Left Hook lecture tour to make a garbled attack on Professor Chris Busby and LLRC's research on childhood leukaemia along the radioactively contaminated coast of north Wales. He refused to discuss what he meant. LLRC published a page of response. On 21st November and 22nd November The Guardian published two poorly researched articles in which he repeated his view of the leukaemia in north Wales and widened the attack. In preparing them he bullied Busby and ignored information supplied - a statement by Richard Bramhall
	On 21st November Monbiot claimed that Professor Geraldine Thomas of Imperial College, London had said: radioactive elements do not bind to DNA which shows how little [Professor Busby] understands about basic radiobiology. and that Professor Busby's assertion that Caesium causes heart disease was ludicrous. and that administration of stable Calcium and Strontium is useless (in fact it's standard medical advice). Click here for discussion We have written to Professor Thomas asking her to whether Monbiot quoted her accurately and, if so, to retract her comments, which are all wrong. Here's the letter. She refused, saying I stand by the comments I made to George Monbiot during his research for this article Note: this is the same Professor Thomas who, on BBC programmes during 2011, claimed that people in Great Britain were not exposed to the radiation from Chernobyl and that there will be no death toll from Fukushima.
	In the same article Monbiot suggested that Professor Busby is seeking to profit financially from the distress of people in Japan by selling goods and services at inflated prices. This is far from the truth. No payments have been made to the bank account referred to. The Foundation has been blocked by legal moves in Japan and imports of the products have been banned, so there have been no sales. Even if these obstacles had not been created, the formal "non-profit" agreement between Busby and the businessman who wanted to create the Foundation was that any profits would be ploughed back into further research. Here is a statement from Professor Busby and a note on the problems of sourcing supplements.
	On the 22nd November Monbiot described our findings of high child leukaemia rates in north Wales as baseless scaremonmgering. He quoted selectively from an article by Dr John Steward (left). Dr Steward is Director of the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU). Further discussion.