AW: [ RadSafe ] Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body

Thu Nov 16 15:49:58 CST 2006

Stewart,

I am grateful for your contribution, because I have wondered for probably
two decades, why shellfish showed elevated concentrations of radionuclides
for instance in the vicinity of Sellafield in their shell! 

Additionally it has been found close to uranium mines (e.g. Australia) that
freshwater mussels use to concentrate several natural radionuclides in their
shell - which is not chitinous. Probably there is a second mechanism.

Taking the meat of both fish and shellfish into consideration: They
accumulate especially Po-210. We found that the population of French
Polynesia in the South Pacific receives a by far higher radiation dose from
consumption of fish - their main food - than from the traces of fission
products from the atmospheric nuclear explosions conducted by the French in
Mururoa and Fangataufa. 

A final remark: For checking the presence of Mn-54 and Zn-?? a special
seaweed (sorry, I forgot the name) was collected in the sea close to the
nuclear power plant of Loviisa in Finland. I remember the nice boat trip to
reach the "harvesting grounds".

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 stewart farber
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 16. November 2006 20:33
> An: RADSAFE; McMahan, Kimberly L.
> Betreff: Re: [ RadSafe ] Cleansing nuclear fallout from the body
> 
> 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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