Why Am I Not Reassured?

Gosh, the reports coming out of Japan seem to be getting worse and worse. Here's what they announced today.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Monday took the unprecedented measure of dumping 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water in the Pacific Ocean from a facility at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex to make room for the storage of more highly contaminated water, which is hampering restoration work at the plant.

With the total amount of water to reach 11,500 tons, including contaminated groundwater from near the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, the government said the disposal was unavoidable in order to secure safety. The level of radioactive substances in the water is up to 500 times the legal limit permitted for release in the environment.

The government's nuclear agency said the disposal will pose ''no major health risk'' and experts say that the radioactive materials are likely to be diluted in the sea, but it remains uncertain how the marine environment will be affected when taking into account the impact of highly radioactive water already leaking into the sea from the plant located on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture.
~ from Kyodo News ~

Is it any wonder that people are frightened? TEPCO and the Japanese government keep reporting that this or that is up to 500, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 times the permissible limits, but, hey don't worry.

This is the exact same scenario Americans were treated to by our own government and BP during last year's mammoth oil spill. We were told that the oil wasn't as bad as it appeared and that the dispersant used would pose no serious health risks to area residents. Despite these reassurances, people up and down the Gulf coast got sick and, one year later, many of them remain sick.

What is the point in having legally permissible limits of toxic substances if, when those limits are exceeded by large margins, we're told it's no big deal? Are the limits themselves meaningless?