[ RadSafe ] More Fed agency promulgation of radiophobia

[Dukelow, James S Jr]

Contrary to James Salsman's reassurances, parts of Idaho were among of
the areas most heavily exposed by fallout (mostly Cs/Sr) for
above-ground weapons testing in Nevada.  On the other hand, Eastern
Washington got very little exposure from the various bomb plumes.

With regard to the Hanford I-131 exposure map, it is interesting to note
how much smaller the 10 rad exposure area for 1946-51 cumulative
exposures is than the area for 1945 exposures, even though new
facilities were continually added at Hanford during the 46-51 time
period.  This reflects early changes in operations protocols,
particularly addition of silver filters to the airborne release path.

The other thing to remember is that Hanford releases were the subject of
two expensive multi-year studies.  The first, the Hanford Dose
Reconstruction Study, estimated the dose to people living in locations
around the Hanford site from 1944-52 releases.  The second, the Hanford
Thyroid Disease Study, compared thyroid disease in cohorts in counties
near Hanford and in control/unexposed counties in the northern part of
Washington State.  No significant thyroid disease was found in the
Hanford release areas.  There was an additional ATSDR study of fetal and
neo-natal deaths in the counties surrounding the Hanford Site for the
years 1941-1951, or thereabouts.  No effects of the beginning of Hanford
operations were found in that study (there were two statistically
significant results among the 45 confidence intervals constructed, about
what you would expect from Type I errors at the 95% confidence level;
there was no consistent pattern of association of health outcomes with
proximity to Hanford in the data set).  The ATSDR people hated that.
There were lots of more or less obvious socio-economic associations in
the data.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow at pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of James Salsman
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 11:19 AM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] More Fed agency promulgation of radiophobia

Jim Muckerheide wrote:

> Our responsible industry and government authorities need to develop 
> and establish the institutional basis to question these results....
> 
> Obviously, no credible "science" or scientists influence these
results! 

I'm guessing Jim hasn't seen the videos:

   http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hanford/health_care/video_presentations.html

If he has, I wonder what his definition of "credible" is.

> (Note: I am an Idaho Hanford 'downwinder' - Moscow, 1946-49 :-)

Idaho residents don't have much to worry about.  Almost all the really
significant exposures were in Adams, Benton, and Franklin counties in
Washington:
   http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hanford/img/exposure_map.gif

Sincerely,
James Salsman

> BoiseWeekly: Lesson One: Don't Say "Fallout Shmallout"
> AUGUST 24, 2005
> BY NICHOLAS COLLIAS
>  
> Last year, Idaho leapt to the forefront of the debate over whether the

> federal government should compensate former victims of nuclear fallout

> from radioactive tests and emissions (BW, "The Low Use Segment," 
> November 17, 2004). And while the government has still not accepted 
> full responsibility-at least by way of compensation-in heavily 
> effected states like Idaho, Wyoming and Washington, at least it's 
> trying to help doctors deal with its mess.
>  
> The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of 
> the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has just released a 
> new video instructing doctors on how to combat the mental, as well as 
> physical, ailments expressed by nuclear downwinders. Titled Hanford: 
> The Psychological Dimensions of Radiation Exposure, the 30-minute 
> video concedes that large radioactive releases did occur throughout 
> the US-and that patients and doctors alike struggle against the 
> vagueness of what, exactly, resulted from that exposure....


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