[ RadSafe ] KHOU Series on Radioactivity in Drinking Water

[Steven Dapra]

July 31

         This series appears to be all video footage.  Since I have a 
low-speed line (dial-up) I would probably need the better part of a 
day to look at it.  I read the letter from KHOU to Dr. Margaret 
Kripke, and her reply.  Dr. Kripke's Wikipedia biography is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_L._Kripke

         She is a prominent immunologist and a high-ranking figure at 
MD Anderson.  Wikipedia's link to her MD Anderson biography does not 
go to said biography.

         As I construe the letter and reply she appears to have 
questioned KHOU's report.

         The link to KHOU's letter is:

http://www.khou.com/community/news-link/Kripke-Response-to-Web-129192338.html

         In opposition to Dr. Kripke, KHOU invokes "Dr. Arjun 
Makhijani, a former member of the radiation advisory committee to the 
EPA" as being some kind of expert on radiation.  I think Makhijani 
has been dismantled on RADSAFE a few times already, so I see no need 
to re-plow that ground.  He believes in LNT, for instance.

         In question four, KHOU invokes a Dr. Joshua Hamilton of 
Brown University.  A Google search yielded this result:

http://www.mbl.edu/governance/gov_staff_hamilto/

         Assuming --- assuming --- that this is KHOU's Dr. Hamilton, 
according to the linked biography, Hamilton's education is in 
biology, genetics, and toxicology.  He is also a adjunct professor in 
the pathobiology program at Brown University.  He is not a health 
physicist, so why KHOU is asking him about anything pertaining to 
radiation exposure is more than I can understand.

         KHOU also offers the "senior nuclear scientist" (Tom 
Cochran) at the Natural Resources Defense Council.  Cochran's NRDC 
biography is here:

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/cochran/cochran.asp

         He has a doctorate in physics from Vanderbilt (1967), and is 
a member of the ANS and the HPS.

         I find it noteworthy --- and perhaps somewhat dishonest of 
KHOU --- that the station asks Dr. Kripke to describe her 
"expertise," however it says nothing about the expertise of 
Makhijani, Hamilton, or Cochran.

         The Bill Field who fussed (in a different KHOU link) about 
radiation "bursts" of radium-laden pipe scale is an expert on radon 
gas.  KHOU called him a health physicist and an 
epidemiologist.  According to Wikipedia his degrees are in biology 
and preventive medicine.  His Wikipedia biography is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._William_Field

         All of this raises what I would call an important question, 
to wit, why couldn't or didn't the "reporters" at this TV station 
find an expert on overall radiation in drinking water?  None of their 
purported experts appear to know anything about water or water 
systems.  (Makhijani for instance is a nuclear and electrical engineer.)

         I would like to know who wrote KHOU's letter to Dr. 
Kripke.  I would be willing to bet that it was not written 
(un-assisted) by anyone at that television station.

Steven Dapra


At 03:23 PM 7/31/2013, you wrote:
>The series is at
><http://snipurl.com/27jm4bx>
>--  George
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[edit]

>>On Jul 31, 2013, at 1:53 PM, Lawrence Jacobi 
>><rjacobi at jacobiconsulting.net> wrote:
>>
>> > This series on radioactivity in Texas drinking water ran a 
>> couple of years ago on a Houston Texas TV station.  I am posting 
>> it now because, due to the lingering drought, surface water is 
>> drying up and Texas communities are depending more and more on 
>> underground aquifers for drinking water.  It is my opinion that 
>> the series does a disservice to the State by mis-stating the 
>> complexity of the science and the public policy on radioactivity 
>> in drinking water.
>> >
>> > I would be interested in reading the opinion others.

[edit]