[ RadSafe ] Fentograms - Testing by Axel Gerdes

[ROY HERREN]

Steven,
   
     Check out http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=home.story&story_id=1034
   
  The site states "Researchers determine the age of the ice by comparing concentrations of daughter uranium-series isotopes to parent isotopes in the sample. The quantities of natural radioactive elements researchers measure are in the femtogram, or one quadrillionth of a gram, scale. The uranium-series elements are uranium, radium, thorium and protactinium".
   
     If ancient ice has levels of uranium-series elements that are in quantities in the femtogram range is it really startling that contemporary urine might also have a similar femtogram range?  Shouldn't folks first establish the ambient background level of uranium-series elements and then subtract that background from current readings before they get all worked up over the levels of current readings?  How long has humanity existed with these background levels in the femtogram range?  Did we evolve in an environment with uranium-series elements in the femtogram range?  Do we have natural defenses against the effects of uranium-series elements in the femtogram range?  Is it possible that our bodies utilize uranium-series elements in some yet unidentified metabolic process in much the same way that we utilize trace amounts of cobalt or selenium?  Lots of questions, but few answers...  It seems to me that one should first investigate/look for the answers before pronouncing in all
 absolute certitude that there is a problem. 
   
  Roy  


Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com> wrote:
  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





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Roy Herren
			
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