[ RadSafe ] James Salsman's first posting to RADSAFE

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

Where doe U232 come from, and how would it have a different biological
half-life than other uranium isotopes?

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:54 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] James Salsman's first posting to RADSAFE

August 17, 2008

	Today I became curious enough about James Salsman's (JS) history
on RADSAFE to search the archives.  He made his first posting here on
Dec. 12 or 13, 2004.  He got off to a good start, implicitly blasting
members of the Health Physics Society and broadcasting his
self-righteousness.

	"I have just found this mailing list today, and I have read the
archives for about the last month.  I am under the impression that many
Health Physics Society members read and contribute to this RADSAFE
mailing list.  The extent to which those with a financial interest in
uranium commerce of one kind or another have repeatedly been attempting
to influence the determination of what should rightfully be the province
of the peer-reviewed medical literature has not gone unnoticed.  I have
decided to hold the authors of some of the most egregious examples of
apologism personally accountable for their errors of commission here and
in other fora."  (I don't know where JS got the idea he was entitled to
hold anyone personally responsible for anything, but what do I know.)

	He put the RAND Corporation in its place by denouncing its study
on uranium inhalation:  "The RAND study on uranium inhalation was flawed
in two ways.  First, it described in quantitative terms effects of the
low level of radiation from uranium projectile munitions, to the
exclusion of similar quantification of uranium metal toxicity.  Second,
it ignored the uranium nitrates and other soluble compounds."

	Salsman appears to have done a literature search of all the
Health Physics Society's literature, for he says, "None of the
publications of the Health Physics Society have directly addressed the
aerosol dispersion of uranyl nitrate, some having gone so far to
consider only the oxides to the exclusion of the nitrate."

	Continuing with the HPS he says, "Moreover, there is nothing on
the Health Physics Society web site directly stating that uranium
attacks any organ other than the kidneys, when it is known to accumulate
in the bone (with the U232 isotope embedded permanently, with no
half-life of organ
clearance) and in the testicles, which explains the 5% incidence rate of
birth defects reported about 1999 when compared to the 3% rate in the
population as a whole."  Naturally JS cites no literature to support his
five percent incidence rate, or to prove that testicular uranium causes
an increase in birth defects.

	But James has everything covered, even the fish in the Indian
Ocean.  "More pressing is the issue of indirect contamination of Indian
Ocean fish.  What are we going to do about people who want to eat fish
from any of the Tigris and Euphrates' tributaries, up to and including
the Indian Ocean?  At the rate UO3 and uranyl nitrate flow into the
groundwater and streams, we should already be able to detect unsafe
levels of uranium in the skeletons of Persian Gulf fish."  To support
this claim, he invokes Ernest Sternglass, writing in 1971.

	The hyperbole never ends either:  "I estimate that at least
40,000,000 have already lost more than half of their remaining life
expectancy to cancers alone (i.e., not counting the obvious immune
system damage or any of the birth defects) from uranium inhalation and
secondary food chain contamination."

	You can read more of James' florid fulminating at this
link:  <http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/0412/msg00212.html>.

Steven Dapra

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