[ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have preventedauthorities fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies

Franta, Jaroslav frantaj at aecl.ca
Thu Apr 7 08:00:40 CDT 2011


UNRESTRICTED | ILLIMITÉ

Hi John,

There is a web site specifically for Canadian science journalists -- too bad more of them aren't aware of it: there is a couple of recent posts about radiation basics and nuclear power, authored by people some of whose names you may recognise...

http://www.sciencemediacentre.ca/


Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of John R Johnson
Sent: April 6, 2011 7:04 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have preventedauthorities fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies

Radsafer

I agree with Cindy. Our daughter, who works for CBC, has been asking me to 
explain it "all" to her. I have found this very difficult. She found that 
http://xkcd.com/radiation  was very useful.

John
***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <radbloom at comcast.net>
To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List" 
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities 
fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies


>
>
> Franz et al,
>
>
>
> I have to wonder if this is a case of folks not knowing the differences 
> among the terms. Having reviewed many, many documents, I've found that 
> even the professionals occasionally misuse the terms radiation, 
> radioactivity and contamination. And in this case where radiation is what 
> is being measured, the person interpreting the measurement then has to 
> determine what that measurement of radiation means. Does it mean the body 
> is covered with radioactive contamination? Does it mean that there is 
> radioactivity that has been taken into the bodies (I doubt that this would 
> show up in field measurements and it is likely that intakes were very 
> small or nonexistent until days after the initial tsunami/earthquake)? I 
> personally doubt that these bodies would have been activated (made 
> radioactive by interaction with certain types and energies of radiation).
>
>
>
> I think this forum is a great place to jump in and remind folks (including 
> ourselves) to be careful with our words, so we can improve our 
> communication. I also think that the translations between Japanese and 
> English might occasionally add to the confusion.
>
>
>
> I hope I've been careful enough with my words, because I mean this only to 
> be constructive.
>
>
>
> Thank you for encouraging my thoughts. I'm hoping you've given me the 
> incentive to contact those who are providing reports that are not clear 
> regarding these terms.
>
>
>
> What a horrible tragedy this is. My heart goes out to these families.
>
>
>
> Cindy Bloom
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Franz Schönhofer" <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>
> To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList" 
> <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 3:37:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities from 
> collecting as many as 1, 000 bodies
>
> RADSAFErs,
>
> The situation in Fukushima is bad, but much worse in my opinion is the two
> faced (according to my dictionary) attitude, which does not clearly
> distinguish between the catastroph caused by the earthquake and the 
> Tsunami
> together and on the other hand of the nuclear disaster.
>
> In the international mass media the different causes are "deliberately?"
> mixed together. This seems to be the case in this press message. Bodies
> exposed to "high levels of radiation" would not be radioactive.
>
> I refrain to comment more on that message, because it is to disgusting and 
> a
> lack of reverence for the dead. Shame on those "journalists"!
>
> Franz
>
> Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
> MinRat i.R.
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Wien/Vienna
> AUSTRIA
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
> Von: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] Im Auftrag von Gaglierd, Tony
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 06. April 2011 21:02
> An: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities from
> collecting as many as 1, 000 bodies
>
> Radiation fears have prevented authorities from collecting as many as 
> 1,000
> bodies of victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami from within the
> 20-km-radius evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant
>
> Bodies had been "exposed to high levels of radiation after death." 
> Elevated
> levels of radiation were found on a body in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture,
> about 5 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
>
> Does anyone know or have a reference that would give some values to the
> ambient radiation levels in the No Go Zone? How about contamination 
> levels?
>
> "Elevated levels of radiation were found on a body..." I assume that was
> contamination? Not activity? How much contamination? What isotopes I-131,
> Cs-137?
>
> Based on risk benefit, and not being disrespectful of the dead, is the 
> risk
> acceptable to retrieve these bodies and process them for proper burial?
>
> With DHH and CDC,s sudden interest in Nuclear detonation, and having been 
> in
> the past and presently involved in Nuclear Preparedness Planning, I wonder
> how we would plan for and deal with this issue post attack or more
> realistically post sever power plant incident?
>
> Considering what I've seen coming from these folks it's a veiled copy of 
> the
> old CD RDO program. Radiation is Radiation, Contamination is 
> contamination,
> Fallout is Fallout.
>
> P.S. Let's get on with putting the spent fuel in Yucca Mountain, and in 
> the
> future reprocess it. Carter was a Nuclear Engineer, what's Obama's Excuse?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
>
> Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood 
> the
> RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings 
> visit:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
>
> Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood 
> the RadSafe rules. These can be found at: 
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings 
> visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
> _______________________________________________
> You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
>
> Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood 
> the RadSafe rules. These can be found at: 
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings 
> visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
> 

_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list

Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood the RadSafe rules. These can be found at: http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html

For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEGED INFORMATION NOTICE

This e-mail, and any attachments, may contain information that
is confidential, subject to copyright, or exempt from disclosure.
Any unauthorized review, disclosure, retransmission, 
dissemination or other use of or reliance on this information 
may be unlawful and is strictly prohibited.  

AVIS D'INFORMATION CONFIDENTIELLE ET PRIVILÉGIÉE

Le présent courriel, et toute pièce jointe, peut contenir de 
l'information qui est confidentielle, régie par les droits 
d'auteur, ou interdite de divulgation. Tout examen, 
divulgation, retransmission, diffusion ou autres utilisations 
non autorisées de l'information ou dépendance non autorisée 
envers celle-ci peut être illégale et est strictement interdite.


More information about the RadSafe mailing list