RE: Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology- K-40 Thread

[Ernesto_Faillace@notes.ymp.gov]

      >This is the type of scientific information that could be the death knell
      forAlec Baldwin and Tooth Fairy >science.  Please pass it along to 60
      Minutes, Dateline and the rest of them.


>Radsafers:

>FYI. On the subject of interesting sidelights related to K-40 is the issue
>of KCl salt "Quickmelt" commonly sold each winter in bulk 50 pound containers
>anywhere in the Northern US...


Making this fact widely publicized may discourage the purchase of "Quickmelt".
In the absence of alternative products and without doing a more detailed risk
analysis, I would venture that the risk of not using "Quickmelt" (injuries and
possible fatalities due to slipping on icy driveways/sidewalks) probably exceeds
the radiological risks of its use.  The same probably holds even more true in
the case where the salt would be used to de-ice highways and roads.  So that
even though cancer rates may be correlated to uses of road salt, I wonder what
the correlation would be between traffic accidents in ice-prone areas where road
salt is used or not used.  Having lived in Buffalo, Chicago, and Denver for many
years, I have come to appreciate the need for winter highway de-icing.  Just one
more reason I moved to Las Vegas :-)

Ernesto Faillace CHP
efaillace@earthlink.net


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