[ RadSafe ] The Demon Metal or The Gospel According to Chris Busby

[Richard L. Hess]

On 2014-01-03 1:04 PM, KARAM, PHILIP wrote:
> Richard -
>
> A good reference on the health effects of uranium is a (relatively) recent report by the National Academies of Sciences (Review of the Toxicologic and Radiologic Risks to Military Personnel from Exposures to Depleted Uranium During and After Combat). You can download a PDF copy from the National Academies Press (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11979) at no charge.
>
> The short version is that uranium is chemically toxic - especially to the kidneys, but it is only very weakly radioactive. I have no idea what Busby might mean with his comments about damage multiplication - maybe he is positing some sort of synergistic combination of chemical toxicity plus radiological damage, but that's only a guess.
Thank you, Philip, for the reference.

What I think he was talking about was that the uranium has an affinity 
to attach itself to DNA (why it is used for staining such samples for 
electron microsopes) and then its 82 electrons block naturally occurring 
gamma rays. This is where he loses me: The gamma rays during the 
absorption process are turned into fast photoelectrons and these damage 
the DNA to which the uranium has "attached" due to its affinity.

He claims this effect is not discussed in the "mainstream" (my word) 
research work and that this multiplicative effect is related to the 
square of the atomic number.

I have downloaded the recommended book and am finding it to be 
long-winded, but I'll spend some more time with it.

Thanks!

Cheers,

Richard

-- 
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