[ RadSafe ] Fentograms - Testing by Axel Gerdes

[Steven Dapra]

March 9

	That NY Daily News article said:

"Earlier this year, The News submitted urine samples from Guardsmen of the 
442nd to former Army doctor Asaf Durakovic and Axel Gerdes, a geologist at 
Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. The German lab specializes in 
testing for minute quantities of uranium, a complicated procedure that 
costs up to $1,000 per test.

[edit]

"According to Army guidelines, the total uranium concentration Gerdes found 
in Matthew is within acceptable standards for most Americans.

"But Gerdes questioned the Army's standards, noting that even minute levels 
of DU are cause for concern.

" 'While the levels of DU in Matthew's urine are low,' Gerdes said, 'the DU 
we see in his urine could be 1,000 times higher in concentration in the 
lungs.' "

	Is a geologist qualified to run tests like this or to comment on 
them?  This sounds like work for a toxicologist or a chemist.  And how 
about that "could be" qualifier?  Why not ten times higher?  Or a million, 
or a billion, or a trillion times higher?  Speculation like this is rife in 
anti-nuke circles.  It is silly and it proves nothing.

	That unit of measurement is a femtogram (with an "m"), isn't it, instead 
of a fentogram (with an "n")?

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com