[ RadSafe ] Radiation in landfills

[John R Johnson]

Mike

Tritium as HTO has a 0.97 10 day and 0.03 40 day half life in adults 
(according to the ICRP Pub. 67)  but tritium "organically bound" to carbon 
(OBT) has a  0.5 10 days and 0.5 40 days half life  in adults. I don't know 
what the tritium gas will "convert to" in the garbage.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" <Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:12 AM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Radiation in landfills


Hi, Franz.

I have on several occasions sampled leachete from land fills, and our lab 
has reported finding tritium at puzzling concentrations.  The consensus is 
that the tritium comes from exit signs that were disposed of in the 
landfill, and on which the tubes containing the tritium gas were broken when 
the garbage was compacted.

While I don't have a solid reason, I remain dubious of this explanation.  It 
doesn't "feel" right to me.  I asked the chemists about contaminates that 
might give false positives some how, and was told that the lab was confident 
that was not the case.  I remain very open to suggestions beyond exit signs 
and watch hands, or, as one of our activist groups claims, midnight dumpings 
of drums of reactor primary coolant water into the landfill.

I am, however, quite satisfied of one thing: the tritium in the leachete 
does not constitute a public health risk.  Should someone be drinking enough 
leachete to gain a noticeable body burden (and do it on a regular basis, as 
tritium has a 12 day biological half-life, and they would need to replenish 
often), they should live so long that the rad becomes a health issue.  The 
chemical hazards are far greater, though my bet is that the pathogens would 
get them first.  That they would drink landfill leachete in the first place 
hints at some non-trivial mental health issues that I would really have 
someone look into.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf 
Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 12:55 PM
To: BLHamrick at aol.com; sandyfl at cox.net; radsafe at radlab.nl; powernet at hps1.org
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] Radiation in landfills

Barbara and RADSAFErs,

Additionally to the discussion I would like to put forward, that we have 
found in Austria highly elevated tritium concentrations - more than 3000 
Bq/l in the water collected routineously from the bottom of household 
garbage landfillls. This water is routineously pumped to the surface and 
sprayed into the landfill for evaporation.

We attribute these concentrations - without any really conclusive link, just 
speculation - to the fact, that the use of watches from a certain Swiss 
brand, which used tritium for the hands. It was more or less regarded as a 
fashion object, which should be changed every few months and we attributed 
this elevations of Tritium in landfill water to this fact, though we have no 
conclusive research concerning the discharge of tritium from these watches.

I would appreciate very much to get into contact with somebody who has 
similar experience.

Best regards,

Franz

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


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