AW: [ RadSafe ] Why some divers want to work in ...... SI Units in India?

Wed Jan 24 02:58:20 CST 2007

Dear Dr Schoenhofer,

My apologies for not reading your message promptly. From the title of your message, I did not realize that your query was on SI units.

I have only limited contact with the countries such as thailand, Bangladesh, Korea in the region; but I had occasion to meet  scientists from these countries during many review meetings and conferences (some of them in Vienna) I have attended.I believe that everyone without exception use SI units.

Yes, Indian scientists accepted SI units without much difficulty. Old timers (the species have almost vanished!!)are still comfortable with roentgens, rads and curies! Occasionally they argue that many are not able to comprehend SI units.

The major incentive for change came from insistence of journals. I belong to a generation of scientists who competed among themselves by publishing articles in international journals. Initially, some of these journals wanted that we must use SI units or use both units.

I was the editor of the AMPI Medical  Physics Bulletin the earlier publication of the Association of Medical Physicists of India for several years.The Bulletin is now a journal.  I was also in the editorial board of the bulletin of Indian Association of Radiation Protection and other publications.We have always encouraged the use of SI units. In 1975, two senior colleagues wrote an interesting paper titled " SI Units for radiation measurements:For or Against" in the Indian Journal of Radiology. 

I was very much involved in sorting out the "riddle" of rad and gray, rem and sievert, curie and becquerel. By about the middle of the eighties most of us were  conversant with  SI units. Once I reproduced in the AERB Newsletter, the publication from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, a few quotes from newspapers and journals to illustrate their confusion over radiation units. Two leading dailies in India used "gm" of radiation in place of rad!  I could not understand till date the basis of this confusion.

It was amusing to realize that there was confusion at all levels. When "Nature" wrote an an article to clarify the position, it defined "curie" incorrectly.(Nature,1985) For "The washigton Post",radiation and radioactivity were synonymous!(The Washington Post,May 2,1986)

"The Nuclear Engineering International" bemoaned that even experts seemed a little unsure at times. July 1986 issue of the journal stated thus:

"Chernobyl is off the front pages at last, but the confusion over the units in which it is measured lingers on... Data on contamination was rapidly made available in European countries after the accident, but nobody in the media or the public understood what the blast of becquerels, sieverts, rems, absorbed doses, dose equivalents (and from the Soviet Union itself, roentgens, of all things) really meant.Even the experts seemed a little unsure at times."

On June 12, 1986 the New Scientist wrote thus:

"Confusion over units of radiation continues, the weighty opinion of Lord Marshall of Goring, chairman of Britain's Central Electricity Generating Board, being that sieverts and becauerels are incomprehensible.

" I am a rads and rems man myself" he confessed in Geneva. Marshall also condemned the use of becquerels per litre to measure the concentrations of radio-iodines in milk. The people of Britain, he roundly declared, not only do not understand becquerels, but they do not understand litres either".

Immediately after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, we had occasion to interact with some of the best brains in the legal profession.There was a prolonged litigation on  imported (allegedly contaminated) butter from Ireland. Lawyers prefer clear and unambiguous language. Many scientists are not good communicators. We had to explain the basis of arriving at the limits of radionuclides in foodstuffs. The discussion covered Bq, Sv and radionuclides such as Sr-90, Cs-137! End of the day one of the eminent lawyers handling the case declared  " I do not understand or believe a word of what you say, but I will defend the case". We were mortified.

When the metric system was introduced in the United Kingdom, I was a student. We were confused. We felt that we were shortchanged in all cash transactions! It took some time to identify the then newly introduced Pence and the existing shilling and penny!

On the of the mementos Professor Spiers (who was then head of the medical physics department, Leeds university) presented  me was a scroll detailing the conversion into the metric system.

I wrote this long message primarily to show that the introduction of "SI units" had its  ups and downs. This was happening in all countries. I am not surprised to see that after several decades history repeats itself.

Regards

K.S.Parthasarathy
Ph.D

(formerly,
Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board)

Raja
Ramanna Fellow

Strategic
Planning Group,

Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences

Department
of Atomic Energy

Room
No 18

Ground
Floor, North Wing

Vikram
Sarabhai Bhavan

Mumbai
400094

E-mail
ksparth at yahoo.co.uk

91+22
25555327 (O)

91+22
25486081 (O)

91+22
27706048 (R)

9869016206
(mobile)

----- Original Message ----
From: Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>
To: parthasarathy k s <ksparth at yahoo.co.uk>; Sandy Perle <sandyfl at cox.net>; radsafe at radlab.nl; powernet at hps1.org
Sent: Monday, 22 January, 2007 8:50:53 AM
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] Why some divers want to work in nuclear reactors;intersting story Do they work under simulated conditions?

Dear collegue,

Since I assume that you have a wide knowledge about not only the "Indian
subcontinent", but also about countries in the far east I would seriously
like to invite you to comment not only to me, but also to the RADSAFE
community about the status of SI units in the Far East. I know that at least
a few years ago Japan still officially had the outdated old units, but all
my collegues I met during a month of intensive visits to many institutions
there, that all my collegues and friends used SI-units. How is it in India,
Bangladesh, Thailand, Korea (from my visits I know that the scientists use
SI-units there as well as in China), etc. etc. 

I would appreciate your input to this discussion.

Sincerely

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA

Refreshing change away from the SI Units debate !

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