Re: Uranium Workers Used in Experiments

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

At 07:17 PM 2/8/00 -0600, you wrote:
>
>> The auto industry recalls did help its image, today most of the consumers do
>> not care about those safety recalls at all.
>
>Yup, and the autos really did kill and harm people.  No question about it.
 Not
>so with low doses.

I agree.

The tobacco industry is dealing with compensation issues as a result of
actual harm caused to smokers. The auto industry recalled vehicles to
correct problems that clearly endangered customers. But a settlement over
low dose irradiations because it seems politically expedient at the moment
will be perceived as being in the same category as the tobacco and auto
industry problems, i.e., that harm has been done and danger really exists.

How do you think the AMA will deal with this? If this low dose compensation
idea survives, it seems inevitable that significant numbers of people will
begin to refuse xrays and other medical procedures because "deadly
radiation" is involved, and that's a phenomenon that could easily snowball
into a nationwide epidemic. I cannot imagine that the AMA will sit silently
by and watch this come to pass, nor will the medical community care to
withstand the increase in wrongful death lawsuits that will inevitably
follow the increase in deaths from illnesses that didn't use to be so
lifethreatening.

Bob Flood
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
bflood@slac.stanford.edu
(650) 926-3793

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