[ RadSafe ] Detectability vs. Hazard ,uranium in peaches
Dan W McCarn
hotgreenchile at gmail.com
Sat Mar 19 23:32:24 CDT 2011
Dear Larry:
Years ago I had a lab assistant who was helping me disassemble a liquid
scintillation counter in order to repair it. Of course, there was a check
source deep in the machine shielded with lead. As I began to remove the
heavy external lead shielding from the machine, he began to move further and
further away from the counter until by the last piece of shielding, he was
on the other side of the room. And he looked pretty scared.
"What's the matter?" I asked. He said, "You are exposing us to dangerous
radiation!" I asked him from where. He said, "The machine!" I tried to
explain that the shielding was to keep outside radiation out, but he didn't
believe me and that the check source was contained a minuscule amount of
radioactive material. I pulled-out my Ludlum Model 19 survey meter, and
showed him that the background was normal. He wasn't buying any of it. So I
gave him a copy of the operator's manual, and he went home nauseated.
Several hours later, about 11:00PM, he called me, and excitedly told me that
he had read the manual and discovered that he wasn't suffering from
excessive radiation exposure, that the shield really was to keep the outside
radiation out. He came back to work the next day slightly embarrassed.
The poor boy had made himself sick with worry!
The truth is that scared people develop stress-related diseases. Post
Chernobyl these included suicide, drug & alcohol abuse, diabetes, heart
disease and stroke. I sincerely hope that the media has the sense to
moderate the discussion.
Dan ii
--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home - New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Addis
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 20:09
To: 'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Detectability vs. Hazard ,uranium in peaches
Yes, I live in upstate South Carolina and we have some VERY high levels of
naturally occurring Uranium in well water in discreet locations in our
Greenville County. The activity is so high I wouldn't drink it - owed to
chemical properties for kidney deposition. Come to think of it I might give
a sample of my well water to our Rad Chem instructor to do an analysis if he
has time. Come to think of it, I've never checked it for chemical analysis
either. Only been drinking it for 31 years.
A woman in one of my training classes recoiled in horror and screamed "I'm
pregnant" as I approached her with a 198,000 dpm I-129 disc source. I was
showing them that it was almost non-detectable with a Pancake GM, but was 20
some thousand cpm with a thin window NaI detector.
She would have REALLY been horrified if she knew just how radioactive she
already was. I told her we needed to talk and tried to explain it to her.
Her emotions didn't want to let her brain absorb it. She was a technical
assistant and made her living in bio-tech.
Had she known about bananas and Brazil nuts she probably would have given
them a wide berth in the local grocery store. ;=)
Larry Addis
While on a visit to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, Dr Merril
Eisenbud recounted an instance in which uranium was found in peaches.
Initially,
many felt that it came from a uranium enrichment plant operating nearby.
Later
an enterprising person collected samples of the fruit from far away
California.
Those peaches also contained trace amounts of uranium. More in peaches grown
in
cultivated farms. The source was phosphatic fertilizers which contain
uranium!
Couple of years ago, an NGO found uranium in the hair samples of some
children
in Punjab, India. She attributed it to nuclear power plants. The news got
wide
publicity. My colleagues in BARC spent several man-hours tracking the
source.
Water samples in different parts of India as in other countries contain
uranium.
Actually the uranium content in hair of children were also not abnormally
high
An active NGO attributed it to the "uranium dust" from Afghanistan. They
were
claiming that US used uranium tipped artillery in Afghanistan!
Regards
Parthasarathy
________________________________
From: Jerry Cohen <jjc105 at yahoo.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Sun, 20 March, 2011 5:28:06
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Detectability vs. Hazard
An almost unique property of radioactivity is that is that it is
detectable
even in miniscule quantities. In this regard, it is interesting to review
the
case of Mercury (Hg) in seawater. A few decades ago there was serious
concern
about consuming seafood which was found to be "tainted" with Hg. Swordfish
was
not being consumed and even canned tuna fish was viewed with alarm. This Hg
contamination was considered the result of industrial pollution and Hg was
the
cause of considerable concern. Government funding supported much funding to
research the "problem" and people were worried.
Rational assessment at the time revealed that the most ambitious
industrial
activity and all of mankind's historical use of Hg could only account for a
minute fraction of the total oceanic Hg inventory. So where did all of this
Hg
come from? The obvious answer is that the Hg was always there. In the eons
since
the earth was formed, the continuing hydrologic cycle caused rain to leach
Hg
and other minerals from the land, carrying it via the rivers to the ocean
where
it remained and concentrated over all time. So, how was it that in the 60's
and
70's there becaome so much concern. I think I know the reason. Some time
around
the early 60's, atomic absorbtion (AA) analysis was developed and man was
able
to detect miniscule concentrations of Hg which were previously undetectable.
Researches hyped the Hg problem to secure funding for further study, the
news
media reported extensively on the threat, and perception of the problem
snowballed. Finally, they discovered a store of tuna fish that had been
canned
in the early 20's, and found Hg concentrations similar to those that caused
the
current alarm showing that oceanic Hg levels were pretty much always there.
Despite this, a lot of people still remain concerned. Once you scare them,
it
seems almost impossible to unscare them.
I believe the moral of this story is that if we wish to diminish public
fear
of radiation we should start by somehow desensitizing radiation detectors.
Either that, or find a way of making people think more rationally.
Jerry Cohen
________________________________
From: "GEOelectronics at netscape.com" <GEOelectronics at netscape.com>
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Sent: Sat, March 19, 2011 3:47:00 PM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] I-131 in milk and activity on spinach around Fukushima
Dewey, from CNN-
"Tainted milk was found 30 kilometers (18 1/2 miles) from the plant and
spinach
was collected as far as 100 kilometers (65 miles) to the south, almost
halfway
to Tokyo."
and
"Very small amounts -- far below the level of concern -- of radioactive
iodine
were also detected in tap water in Tokyo and most prefectures near the
Fukushima
Daiichi plant damaged by last week's monster earthquake and tsunami"
George Dowell
_____________________________________________________________
Netscape. Just the Net You Need.
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