Re: Son of ALARA!

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Ted,

Without addressing all issues:

Ted Neufang wrote:
> 
> After reading, and rereading Mr. Fitch's eloquent "son of ALARA" post, I
> wasn't quite sure if he was for us or agin' us.
> 
> Specifically, the following comments:
> 
> >>they fight in favor of the nuclear industry's unfettered success<<
> Actually, I don't think anyone wants "the fox in charge of the henhouse".
> We have gone through that with the government and the nuclear industry, and
> continue to remediate and clean up at places like Mound, Fernald, and many
> others.  What I believe everyone is asking for is reasonable regulations and
> enforcement that is applied equally across the industry.  By all means, the
> health and safety of the worker, the public AND the environment should be
> paramount.  (How many Ci go down the drain at Hospitals and Universities?
> Yet I have to kill trees over 100 cpm on a workers hand)  Again let's be
> reasonable.

Agreed, with qualifiers :-)
 
> >> Cohen et al are chanting "ALARA is dead, ALARA is dead.<<
> Hopefully the others are in the minority, and some people are stubborn.  I
> don't think Son of Erythema will come back though.  Compromise, is the key
> as Fitch stated, compromise is a synonym for ALARA.

It seems the 2 extremes are: "Erythema standards with
undocumented/regulated exposures" vs. LNT/ALARA that causes $100s
Billions in costs for NO public health benefits."

> >>Why ALARA?  Quite simply this:  One ionizing event can cause a single
> unrepaired double strand break, which may result in a fatal malignancy.<<
> A true statement.  

The core fallacy that has been promoted as disinformation. It's not
true. There are great numbers of DSB's; normally repaired/removed - as
long as the damage control system functions. Such an event is simply
"in the noise" and contributes NO risk. In fact as just described in
the previous msg, the biological response to an ionizing event is a
net benefit in stimulating the biological functions that control
damage. The general conclusion is that at least 5 accumulated events
are necessary to enable progression to cancers, and to promote tumors.
This is enabled by failures in the ability to control damage, not by
the damage events themselves.

> Finally, I really take exception to the following;
> >>(nuclear workers).. are similar to many Appalachian coal miners who in the
> past contracted black lung because they were unable to seek better
> employment.  Certainly life is more important than nuclear money or
> accolades.<<
> I am able to seek any employment I desire, and have done so in my 20+ years
> in the nuclear industry.  You are  pious and ignorant  Mr. Fitch.  In one
> paragraph you have offended not only coal miners and Appalachians, but
> everyone who works in the nuclear industry.  Life IS more important than
> nuclear money or accolades, and so is family, religion and self esteem.  I
> certainly hope that the money you earn is virginal and untainted in any way.
> Or maybe you have found the perfect job.  I would suggest that you GET a
> life before you criticize mine or my occupation.

In the real world many people do not have choices. This certainly
applied to coal miners, eventually leading to violent strikes over
safety. But even then they had little choice. The same is true of
many. The difference with nuclear is that the data consistently show
that nuclear workers have better health than non-nuclear workers,
especially for cancer which has a generally minimal "healthy worker
effect" with workers exposed to carcinogenic occupational environments
having "negative" HWEs (e.g., Monson 1986 showed that smelter(?)
workers had a 1.1 HWE, while workers not exposed to carcinogens had
cancer HWEs of 0.8-0.9 - so why do nuclear workers show "HWEs" of
0.6-0.8? :-)
 
> Ted Neufang
> ALARA Supervisor
> PSEG Nuclear LLC
> 856-339-2832
> Theodore.Neufang@pseg.com

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
Radiation, Science, and Health
Center for Nuclear Technology and Society at WPI
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