Re: Steven Wing etc.

["Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@prodigy.net>]

    It seems to me that if people like Steven Wing, John Gofman, and Rosalie
Bertelle did not exist, the BEIR committee and EPA would have to somehow
invent them in order to justify the "moderate and reasonable" positions they
have taken on radiation effects.
     On the one hand they see groups advocating the idea that all radiation
is deadly regardless of dose levels. On the other hand, they see the
anti-LNT & hormesis folks telling them that low dose exposures are harmless
or perhaps even beneficial.
    Now,  doesn't that make EPA requirements such as the 15 mrem/y cleanup
limit seem reasonable?

jjcohen@prodigy.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Hardeman <Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, June 23, 2000 3:17 PM
Subject: Steven Wing to speak in Boulder, CO this weekend


>RADSAFE'rs -
>
>See the attached press release.
>
>Jim Hardeman
>Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us
>
>========
>
>Radiation risks examined
>
>
>Updated 12:00 PM ET June 22, 2000
>
>By Brian Hansen
>Colorado Daily
>U. Colorado
>
>
>(U-WIRE) BOULDER, Colo. -- A scientist whose research has raised serious
questions about the public health risks associated with radiation exposure
in and around U.S. Energy Department facilities, such as the now-mothballed
Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, will speak in Boulder this weekend.
>
>Steven Wing, a researcher at the School of Public Health at the University
of North Carolina, will lecture on Friday evening about the risks that
radiation poses to people who have worked in -- or lived around -- DOE
nuclear weapons plants. On Saturday, Wing will host a workshop designed to
give people opportunities to ask questions about the health risks associated
with radiation exposure.
>
>The lecture and the workshop will both be held at the Rocky Mountain Peace
and Justice center, located at 1520 Euclid Ave. in Boulder. Both events are
free and open to the public.
>
>Wing first gained national prominence in 1991, when he published his
research study findings of workers at the DOE's nuclear weapons laboratory
in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Wing's research showed that Oak Ridge workers who had
been exposed to on-the-job radiation levels far below DOE standards were
dying from leukemia much faster than their counterparts in the general
public.
>
>Then, in a follow-up study published earlier this year, Wing found that
workers at four DOE nuclear weapons facilities -- Oak Ridge, Hanford (Wash),
Los Alamos (N.M.) and Savannah River (S.C) -- were dying at elevated levels
of multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer that affects blood-forming
tissues. Again, Wing found that none of the workers who succumbed to the
disease had been exposed to radiation levels exceeding federal standards.
>
>According to Wing, the findings indicate that official radiation protection
standards are set far too low.
>
>"The issues that I've raised have to do with whether or not there are
detrimental health effects from exposure to low levels of radiation, and how
big those health effects might be," Wing said in a telephone interview from
his University of North Carolina office.
>
>Because of this research, Wing has become a leading critic of the
methodology by which the government currently sets radiation protection
standards. The levels are in large part based on studies of people who
survived the World War II-era atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Japan.
>
>"The issue of standards setting involves who decides what risks are
acceptable," Wing said. "That in some ways is really a public-policy issue."
>
>Wing said that his research indicates that there is plenty of information
that is "not being brought to the table" when decisions are made regarding
the establishment of radiation protection standards. Wing says that the
exclusion of his information has been very troubling -- for reasons that go
far beyond the realm of pure science.
>
>"The question is, in a democracy, who should be at the table when those
decisions are made?" he asked.
>
>For more information about this weekend's events, call the Rocky Mountain
Peace and Justice Center at 303-444-6981.
>
>(C) 2000 Colorado Daily via U-WIRE
>
>
>
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