Sr-90 in teeth - it must be there!

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 19:10 26.04.2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Vincent,
>It was Sr-90, not Ce-137. 

Vincent did not cite Ce-137 either but Cs-137. But you are right.


But that probably doesn't affect the rest of your
>arguments.
>Sr90 is emitted by nuke plants and the emissions show up on yearly reports
issued by
>each nuke plant and available at the NRC. I have the whole pile of them
for salem 1
>and 2.

If you have the whole pile it might be interested for most of us, to read
numbers and especially "emitted" is not enough - what is the pathway of
emmission? What is the chemical form?


>The questions are - does a relatively small amouint of sr-90 as reported
by the NRC
>able to produce the effects shown in the Tooth Fairy studies, and is all
of the
>sr-90 emissions being caught or reported?
>

Regulators use to know the emission pathways and where to look for
emissions - again the story always put forward by anti`s on "secret"
emissions, not being measured and being covered up. If no arguments are
available, the conspiracy argument is well suited to explain and justify
any anti-nuclear propaganda.

Not only talking about the questions of the pathway of emission - the even
more crucial question is the pathway to the consumers. How should gaseous
or liquid effluents reach the consumer in order to be ingested? Do people
drink waste water? Do they sit on the chimney to inhale 24 hours a day the
offgases? That some radionuclides (or any other pollutant) are emitted (in
very low amounts of course) does by no way mean that they will reach the
consumer! You may stand in the zoo in a place and look through a glass
window to for instance a venomenous snake - are you afraid of it? Do you
run to the director and claim that the snake has to be removed at once, at
the best killed at once, because it is poisonous and deadly dangerous? I
think that this is an excellent comparison and there is nothing wrong with it!

Sr-90 is a very special case (as well as Cs-137), because of its chemical
properties. One can inhale I-131 from emissions and one can calculate a
theoretical dose contribution if one lives not to far away from a nuclear
power plant.

The tooth fairy project is in my opinion the most disgusting example of
anti propaganda. I suppose that the originators knew very well about the
fact that Sr-90 is still present in the environment from the atmospheric
nuclear tests. Sr-90 can therefore be found in traces in all foodstuff (as
well as Cs-137), especially in milk. From food it is incorporated together
with calcium and since it is chemically similar to calcium it is
incorporated into bone tissue and also in teeth. Many studies are known
about the Sr-90 content of teeth. In order to achieve a result being
representative for a relatively short time interval and thereby minimizing
the temporal uncertainty, the first teeth from children were investigated.
Of course "children" and "contamination" is a wonderful combination of
words for anti's, evoking emotions. Grownups have Sr-90 in teeth and bones
as well.....

I have never read or heard any numbers concerning the Sr-90 activity
concentration in teeth from the tooth fairy project in order to be able to
compare them with the numbers from other studies. 

Furthermore: Especially in the USA I believe from my experience that hardly
any food is consumed in the vicinity of where it has been grown. Food is
processed and it comes from everywhere not only in the USA, but from South
America and overseas. Therefore the Sr-90 content of food is in no way
representative for the contamination in the vicinity of the child and the
nuclear power plant. 

To summarize and to make it short: There is not any link between the Sr-90
concentration in the environment around a nuclear power plant and the
concentration in teeth of residents in the vicinity. Furthermore the fact
that Sr-90 shows up in bones and teeth is very well known and excellently
documented. Several studies have been performed on that. Also studies on
Sr-90 in wild animals have been done and I know that because I am the
author of a careful study on Sr-90 in red-deer antlers as a bioindicator in
Austria. 


So, what about the values found in this Tooth Fairy Project? Can the
results or the report be found somewhere on the Web? What are the
"effects"? I think to remember that some people have criticized that no
money was given by the authorities for this "research". Any cent spent on
this work would be a waste of money, because even if there would be a
contribution from the nuclear power plant (which I clearly deny) it would
not be possible to distinguish this effect from the "background" of Sr-90
in teeth from the atmospheric nuclear explosions.

I hope, Norm, that you do not take it as a personal attack. I am happy to
read that you pose questions and discuss them.

Best wishes,

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schoenhofer
Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management
Radiation Protection Department (BMLFUW I/8 U)
Radetzkystr. 2
A-1031 Vienna
AUSTRIA

phone: -43-1-71172-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331

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