# 3161
In 1962 the world was brought to the brink of nuclear destruction over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Along with the tense evening newscasts, CONELRAD alerts on TV and Radio, and armed military presence on the streets -people began frantically digging (or otherwise creating) fallout shelters in their backyards or homes.
As for me, we had daily `duck & cover and evacuation drills’ at school, and I received Civil defense instruction on radiation sickness and preparing for nuclear attack.
I could tell you the types of radiation (Alpha particles, Beta particles, Gamma Rays), the amount of shielding needed for each, and the amount of exposure (in rads) to induce radiation sickness or death.
And I was only in the second grade.
Looking back, it was pretty heavy-handed instruction- especially for kids - although I didn’t feel particularly traumatized by it.
Of course, I did end up becoming a blogger – so I can’t be sure there weren’t some adverse effects.
Hopefully we can do a better job this time of teaching kids about the current threat, and how to deal with it.
Cartoons have always been a great way to reach kids, and the folks at Brain Pop (tm) in the UK have come up with one that teaches, in a non-alarming way, about the Swine Flu threat.
If you’ve got kids, and are looking for a way to talk to them about the A/H1N1 pandemic threat, this 5 minute cartoon is a good place to start.
