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Childhood leukemia? Blah, blah, blah.

Yes, let's "pay attention to his words." Risks of nuclear power? McCain's response is "blah, blah, blah."



Here's Nicholas Graham weighing in on HuffPost:

While McCain is targeting Obama's eloquence as empty words with his "blah, blah, blah" comment, it's curious why he would use safeguards for nuclear power as the vehicle for this attack. The line makes McCain seem not only callous but also dismissive of a very real concern regarding nuclear power. It recalls the moment during the third presidential debate when McCain used air quotes while discussing a woman's health as a factor in her having an abortion.

Illinois-based Excelon, currently busy trying to gobble up NRG Energy and position itself as the lead utility on four new nuclear power plants proposed for South Texas, has a record that will turn your stomach when laid against McCain's remarks.

Excelon officials not only failed to report millions of gallons of radioactive wastewater leaking from several of their Illinois plants into area drinking-water supplies, but they actually tried to cover up.

While most of the leaks would have otherwise been regulated discharges into area waterways, as company flacks point out, opposition groups remind us that there is no "safe dose" of radioactivity and that studies of brain cancers and birth defects in children living near the plants are ongoing.

This recent German study found childhood leukemia rates near nuclear power plants were 117 percent higher than the country's national average. Exposure to radiation (whether naturally occurring, via X-ray, or from chemotherapy) is one of the top listed causes of childhood leukemia.

So, it would be irresponsible of me not to comment on McCain's apparent disdain for our childrens' health as expressed this week in Iowa. This full-speed-ahead, damn-the-torpedoes, macho Navy posturing is nauseating. His "blahs" on nuclear safety deserve a quick and unified "shame" on McCain, preferably taken out in the voting booths first, followed by a good dunking beneath the nearest Excelon outfall.

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