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

[Richard L. Hess]

Hi, Jerry,

Thank you very much. This is precisely what I was looking for.

I think we all agree that DU is not dangerous per se as a radiological 
hazard.

The chemical toxicity of DU in certain forms seems to be acknowledged 
(like arsenic, though arsenic appears to be worse, but it depends on the 
compounding).

There is still a question in my mind about Busby's multiplicative 
conjecture (as a contribution to illness) and it all seems to depend on 
particle size and the amount of energy from random gamma radiation being 
converted effectively to beta radiation in close proximity to ingested 
DU particles and then transferred to adjacent cells thereby damaging 
them. The papers cited are convincing that it is a non-issue, but 
Busby's litany of flaws in those papers are substantial.

Thanks again. I'll try not to clutter the list here with any more posts 
on the topic. I appreciate the help as always.

Cheers,

Richard

On 2014-01-04 5:15 PM, Falo, Gerald A CIV USARMY MEDCOM PHC (US) wrote:
> All,
>
> Here's what, I believe, Mr. Hess is looking for:
>
> (1)  http://rpd.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/28/rpd.ncs013.abstract. The concluding line of the abstract is "The proposal is shown generally to be based on sound physics, but overall the impact on human health is expected to be negligible."
>
> (2) http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/09/23/rsif.2009.0300.full.  Here the authors conclude "We found that although the dose enhancement is significant, of the order of 1-10, it is considerably smaller than that suggested previously."
>
> (3) Dr. Busby has more here: http://environmentalarmageddon.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dr-chris-busby.pdf including a response to (2) above.
>
> There might be other information floating around out there (I have a vague recollection of a US national laboratory report on the topic.), but I haven't been keeping up.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Happy New Year,
> Jerry
>
> ________________________________
>
> The statements and opinions expressed herein are my responsibility; no one else (certainly not my employer) is responsible, but I still reserve the right to make mistakes.
>
> Gerald A. Falo, Ph.D., CHP
> Army Institute of Public Health - Health Physics Program
> gerald.a.falo.civ at mail.mil
> 410-436-4852
> DSN: 584-4852
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
> Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2014 2:19 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The Demon Metal or The Gospel According to Chris Busby
>
> Hi, Dan,
>
> Thanks for the informative link. I sometimes worry about Wikipedia articles where I don't know enough to really judge.
>
> By Busby's conjecture, the uranium would have about 7.77 times the "damaging power" through the concentration of gamma rays in the DNA due to the ratio of atomic numbers squared: 92 vs 33.
>
> Of course, we need something to go with uranium like "Arsenic and Old Lace" <smile>.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
> On 2014-01-04 2:57 AM, Dan McCarn wrote:
>> As I recall, Arsenic and Uranium are about equal in crustal abundance.
>> Too bad he doesn't discuss the carcinogenic, mutagenic, etc.
>> properties of arsenic.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_toxicity
>>
>>
>> Dan ii
>>
>> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
>> 108 Sherwood Blvd
>> Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425

-- 
Richard L. Hess                   email: richard at richardhess.com
Aurora, Ontario, Canada           http://www.richardhess.com/
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