[ RadSafe ] Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body

[stewart farber]

Hi all,

For what it is worth. An interesting environmental radiation input on this
thread.

Back in the 1970s, environmental monitoring program data I was asked to
review indicated very elevated levels of Mn-54 and Co-60 in lobsters sampled
in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant in the immediate vicinity of the
plant discharge.

Analyses of these lobsters, showed the activity was not in the lobster meat,
but in the lobster shells. A literature review I made at the time suggested
that the chitenous exoskeleton of lobsters and other types of marine life
having these chitenous exoskeletons [such as crabs, etc.] tended to pick up
nuclear activation products like Mn-54 and Co-60.

So it should come as not surprise that chitosan from shellfish is very
effective for the removal of particulate and dissolved radionuclides.

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Consulting Scientist
[203] 367-0791 [office]
[203] 522-2817 [cell]
email: radproject at sbcglobal.net

==========================

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "McMahan, Kimberly L." <mcmahankl at ornl.gov>
To: "RADSAFE" <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 1:46 PM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body


> Tatiana Levitskaia, the researcher mentioned in the article below, was a
> research chemist here at ORNL for several years before she transferred
> to PNNL. She is a serious, bona fide separations chemist. Another
> separations chemist-researcher here at ORNL, familiar with this type of
> work, recommends related reading of the publications of Eric GUIBAL, who
> has worked with chitosans for many years. He published recently, "A
> Review of the Use of Chitosan for the Removal of Particulate and
> Dissolved Contaminants" in Separation Science and Technology, Volume 41,
> Number 11 / 2006, pp. 2487 - 2514. Note that his focus is more on basic
> properties, with a view to removing metals and minerals in the treatment
> of wastewater or pre-treatment of potable water and the like.
>
> Kim McMAHAN    ORNL External Dosimetry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf Of Susan Gawarecki
> Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 7:38 PM
> To: RADSAFE
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body
>
> Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body
> http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061113_chitosan1.htm
> Nov. 13, 2006
> Courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and World Science staff
>
> A U.S. gov-ern-ment re-search-er is stu-dy-ing ways to clea nse the body
>
> of nu-cle-ar fall-out, us-ing a chem-i-cal from crab and prawn shells.
>
> As con-cerns over nu-cle-ar pro-lif-er-a-tion grow, so do wor-ries that
> an at-tack-er could set off a suit-case-sized bomb in a ma-jor cit-y.
>
> That would spread ra-di-o-ac-t-ive ma-te-ri-al over a wide ar-ea,
> ex-pos-ing vic-tims to var-i-ous ra-di-o-ac-t-ive el-e-ments. Some of
> these can find their way in-to the body, where they keep pro-duc-ing
> ra-di-a-tion for years and of-ten cause can-cer.
>
> There are no ef-fec-tive meth-ods known to purge the bo-dy of this
> ma-te-ri-al, sci-en-tists say, al-though they have made some head-way on
>
> treat-ments that tem-per its ef-fects.
>
> Ta-tia-na Lev-it-skaia of the Pa-cif-ic North-west Na-tion-al
> La-b-o-ra-to-ry in Rich-land, Wash., is re-search-ing a new ap-proach.
> It's based on a wide-ly avail-a-ble ma-te-ri-al, chi-to-san, found in
> the shells.
>
> The substance, which is non-tox-ic, is a chela-tor, or com-pound that
> at-taches it-self to me-tal-lic atoms. Co-in-ci-dent-al-ly, the word
> "che-la-tor" it-self has crab-by ori-gins; it's de-rived from the Greek
> chele, or claw, be-cause the chem-i-cal at-tach-ment mech-an-ism is
> rem-i-nis-cent of a lob-s-ter- or crab-like grasp-ing ac-tion.
>
> Chi-tosan can also be chem-i-cally mod-i-fied to en-hance its abil-i-ty
> to clasp ra-di-o-ac-t-ive atoms, Lev-it-s-ka-ia said. Many of the
> ra-di-o-ac-t-ive el-e-ments in nu-cle-ar fall-out are met-als,
> in-clud-ing plu-to-ni-um, ura-ni-um, stron-ti-um and co-balt.
>
> Chi-tosan is also eas-i-ly ex-pelled from the bod-y, and sci-en-tists
> spec-u-late that af-ter link-ing to the ra-di-o-ac-t-ive sub-stances it
> could take them with it. That would pre-vent their build-up in the
> bones, liv-er, kid-neys and oth-er or-gans.
>
> For now, Lev-it-skaia is in-ves-ti-gat-ing the ef-fec-tiveness of
> chi-to-san and si-m-i-lar sub-stances in re-mov-ing co-balt from
> lab-o-ra-to-ry rats. She re-ported on her re-search at the na-tion-al
> meet-ing of the Amer-i-can Chem-i-cal So-ci-e-ty in mid-September,
> say-ing re-sults are ex-pected this fall.

>



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