AW: [ RadSafe ] Fentograms - Testing by Axel Gerdes

[Franz Schönhofer]

Roger and other RADSAFErs interested,

I have read with interest not only the NY Daily News article, but searched
for Axel Gerdes on Google as well.

Firstly: I am surprised to hear about a new mass unit. Is it a New York
specific unit or is it a country specific unit in order to show a difference
to the SI-units? (Hint: recent discussions on RADSAFE as to the SI units
advent in the USA.) We use normally "femtogram", which is 10E-15. I know
this factor for sure, because "femton" is in Swedish "fifteen", but I am
absolutely convinced that there is no connection. 

Secondly: The Google search revealed again a very interesting phenomenon,
namely the difference between original scientific facts and their
interpretation by interest groups. I do not doubt a femtosecond that the
work done by Axel Gerdes at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Institute in
Frankfurt is of highest quality and reliability. His work is well described
in the scientific part of the google search, but unfortunately for most
RADSAFErs almost all the search results are in German. 

The "double blind testing" of the method was, that the urine of a former
soldier was tested against two (therefore the concept of the hopefully
patented "NY Daily News Double Blind Test") newspaper employees. The request
for the analyses was placed by the "privately financed Uranium Medical
Research Center in Toronto". (Who finances it?) The urine samples were
organized by the NY Daily News. 

Obviously Axel Gerdes has analysed many more urine samples, because in one
of the Google links I find the comment, that between 0.2 and 10% of uranium
found in exposed persons is attributable to DU. I also find the comment that
at this stage it is not possible to draw any conclusions from uranium
concentrations of whatever isotope in urine to the uptake by inhalation of
DU. Needless to say that these cautious considerations are not mentioned in
any of the anti-DU-messages found on Google. 

For RADSAFErs searching for unbiased information I can only recommend the
WISE-site again, as I have done this before. On
www.wise-uranium.org/dissgw.html you will find informations about the above
mentioned topic. Even Dan Fahey's excellent contributions are to be found
there. 

Best regards,

Franz



Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von Roger Helbig
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 09. März 2006 11:47
> An: radsafelist
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Fentograms - Testing by Axel Gerdes
> 
> Radsafers, what can you tell me about the quality of testing by Axel
> Gerdes, the use of a Fentogram as unit of measurement, and anything else
> about this supposed double blind testing of the urine of former NY
> National Guardsman Gerard Matthew ..  I am also looking for more
> information about the Pediatrician who has supposedly confirmed that the
> birth defects in Matthew's daughter were due to Matthew's alleged exposure
> to DU - (I am still looking for his name and hospital affiliation)
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Roger Helbig
> 
> Earlier this year (2004), The (New York Daily) 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.
> The lab is one of approximately 50 in the world that can detect quantities
> as tiny as fentograms - one part per quadrillionth.
> 
> >From NY Daily News .. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/236934p-
> 203326c.html
> 
> 
> 
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