AW: [ RadSafe ] I-131 Patients, comforters, "comforters", Edward Teller

[Franz Schönhofer]

Glenn,

You may wonder, how Edward Teller comes into my mind, when reading your
posting.....

Your contribution made me laugh since I remember still after decades with
real pleasure, when Edward Teller was participating in a high-level
discussion (not a "show") in the Austrian TV on the question of Nuclear
Power. Teller was born in Budapest in 1908 (the Wikipedia biography does not
even mention his year of birth and has serious flaws - so much about the
"holy" Wikipedia), studied many years in Germany, but it was still
astonishing for me, how well - without accent, with perfect grammar - he
spoke German. The Austrian wanna-be antinuclears had a bad day - one of them

started to say about ten accusations and topics in a few sentences, Teller
answered patiently to one after the other, without having taken any notes
and when the wanna-be scientist (a zoologist) protested that Teller was
talking much longer than he himself had, Teller calmly answered, "When you
put forward so many topics I have to answer them one by one.....". (For your
information and your judgement of some "greens": Shortly after that the
zoologist became director of the Natural History Museum in Vienna -
associated with quite a good salary - and he never was heard again among the
green and antinuclear groups. To make it clear, I do not share Tellers
opinions about nuclear bomb testing, use of them in war and many others.

I remember that during the discussion Teller also mentioned natural
radioactivity and I explicitely remember that he was talking about sexual
intercourse. He mentioned the additional dose to the partners (he was of
course talking about married couples....) from natural radionuclides,
especially K-40. Of course I do not remember the exact figures after the
many decades, it should be possible to find them in many publications, but
this demonstrates clearly that the question has been addressed already. So I
would not be surprised, if somebody had paid attention to the situation with
reference of I-131 you addressed. 

To go further: I think that these "comforters" face a lot of other health
risks, which might be much more deadly than a small dose from I-131. 

I hope I have answered your message decently enough....

Best regards,

Franz 

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


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Glenn R. Marshall
Gesendet: Freitag, 15. Februar 2008 16:22
An: Perrero, Daren; RadSafe (E-mail)
Cc: Peterson, Ken
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] I-131 Patients and Taxi Driver

Not to mention the potential internal dose the patient might give to
those who practice the "world's oldest profession" in the resort town.
And has the ICRP done any modeling for that mode of intake?  Oh, the
health physics challenges!

Glenn 


Recent newspaper articles suggest that a few patients who are undergoing
these treatments are not even going home, but instead are taking the
'event' as an opportunity to check into a resort and seclude themselves
for a few days in a more 'pampered setting'.  I wonder what the
potential dose to a member of housekeeping or the resort's masseuse
might come out to be?

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