[ RadSafe ] The last word on DU

Thu Jul 12 13:01:18 CDT 2007

Stewart et al

I agree with you except that Radsafe shoud ask the USTUR to put it on their 
web site.

John
***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
Vancouver, B. C.
Canada
(604) 222-9840
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "stewart farber" <radproject at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Otto Raabe" <ograabe at ucdavis.edu>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>; 
<Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>; <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>; 
<DUStory at yahoogroups.com>; <neildm at id.doe.gov>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The last word on DU

> Dr. Raabe,
> Thanks for noting the recently presented paper by Ron Kathren on Uranium 
> Toxicity. Ron is uniquely qualified to make a review of this sort.
>
> You suggest that Ron's paper is "must reading" for DU alarmists. However, 
> essentially none of these alarmists are going to read this paper -- or if 
> they did by chance read it, their prejudices would blind them to accepting 
> any of the science presented on the subject of U toxicity.
>
> What needs to be done is for sponsoring organizations and/or the HPS to 
> get Ron's paper out to nationally respected science writers [with a 
> personal contact with some, and a cover letter related to Ron's paper for 
> other]. These science writers will, if they pick up the content and 
> realize the import of it, discuss his paper which will in turn reach 
> hundreds of other science writers and hundreds of thousands to millions of 
> readers in the general public. The scientific community needs to reach out 
> in a way that reaches a broad public readership on important scientific 
> issues. The key word is "OUTREACH".
>
> I have had direct experience of just such an approach, demonstrating the 
> incredible reach of the weekly Washington based publication Science News. 
> Janet Raloff, a highly respected science writer with  Science News wrote a 
> news note regarding a paper I presented at an Annual Meeting of the HPS 
> about a national survey of Cs-137 in woodash from domestic woodstoves and 
> fireplaces.
>
> Raloff wrote a very brief news note  [a dozen lines or so which she 
> titled: "Woodash --The Unregulated Radwaste"] about my just presented 
> Cs-137 in Woodash HPS paper.
>
> This 12 line news note in Science News led to countless dozens of print 
> [front page newspaper articles, magazines], and radio reports about how 
> trivial radioactive waste streams from nuclear plants and hospitals with 
> 200 pCi/kg or less of fission or activation products in some waste streams 
> like nuclear facility septic sludge, cloth wipes and clothing from 
> hospitals, etc. were being treated as radwaste, when woodash with 20,000 
> pCi/kg of fission product Cs-137 from bomb test fallout [plus higher 
> levels of Sr-90 generally] was being spread on fields as a fertilizer for 
> organic gardening, both in home use and on commercial organic farms [with 
> woodash from wood-fired power plants!
>
> Raloff also enjoyed the subtitle to my paper on my national survey of 
> Cs-137 in woodash paper which read:  "Woodburners, and Organic Farmers: Is 
> it time to kiss your ash goodbye?". This subtitle served as the proverbial 
> "hook" that the media could not resist in covering the story. My paper 
> showed that Cs-137 in woodash at 20,000 pCi/kg of ash led to doses over 
> many years of use as a fertilizer that were at very most about 1 
> mrem/year, a de minimus level which even anti-nuclear publications like 
> Organic Gardening felt forced to write were levels of no concern, or face 
> reproach and embarassment for their having actively promoted use of 
> woodash as a fertlilizer for many decades [i.e.: it would be their "ox 
> getting gored!"]
>
> Other excellent nationally respected science writers include Larry Spohn 
> of the Albuquerque Tribune --but there are many dozens of science 
> reporters who should and could be approached about the important issues 
> raised by Ron Kathren's just-presented paper. This would likely lead to 
> coverage of the U issue that would "undermine", as it were, the 
> unscientific and alarmist attempts of many individuals and groups opposed 
> to anything nuclear. The key word is OUTREACH to the general and 
> scientific media. The only question is that if science writers do not pick 
> up Ron's paper independently, how will it get to them.
>
> Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
> Consulting Scientist
>
> Farber Technical Services
> 1285 Wood Ave.
> Bridgeport, CT 06604
> [203] 441-8433 [office]
> email: radproject at sbcglobal.net
>
> ====================================
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Otto Raabe" <ograabe at ucdavis.edu>
> To: <neildm at id.doe.gov>; <DUStory at yahoogroups.com>; 
> <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>; <Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 4:59 PM
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] The last word on DU
>
>
>> July 11, 2007
>>
>> Ron Kathren's paper "Acute Toxicity of Uranium: "A Brief Review  with 
>> Special Reference to Man" delivered today at the annual meeting of the 
>> Health Physics Society in Portland, Oregon, (WAM-C.2) is must reading for 
>> all the DU alarmists.
>>
>> After almost 200 years of toxicological study, the best description is 
>> still the one given by Gmelin in 1824: "a feeble poison". Ron's review of 
>> the literature that includes human exposures to soluble forms of uranium 
>> reveals that "no human is known to have died from exposure to uranium." 
>> Also, the radioactivity of uranium is not relevant to toxicity unless it 
>> is at least 15% enriched in U-235.
>>
>> Otto
>>
>> Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
>> Center for Health & the Environment
>> University of California
>> One Shields Avenue
>> Davis, CA 95616
>> E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
>> Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
>
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