Re: Dr. Rosalie's Latest Crusade/References

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

>"...the area of the health effects of ionizing radiation, especially
>at low doses and slow dose rates, for the past 30 years and have >produced 
>and published books and professional papers on the subject."

I read the five peer-reviewed articles by Dr. Bertell I was aware of in 
1986/87. One was about the dangers of compter screens/monitors - published 
in Environmental Health Review (March 1982:3-5). According to my opinion 
that was a mess of wave theory. If I recall correctly, and as so many other 
times there were subjective (no solid science language) statements like "the 
force of a wave can best be understood by the ocean shore" (I am in Cherry 
Hill, New Jersey and don't have access to the files I have at home in 
Sweden).

Another one was a mathematical paper in Journal of Medicine - a Canadian 
publication (relevant journal?). My memory tells me that a large fraction 
(order of more than 25% - may be half) of two years' of publications I went 
through were by the editorial board themselves. One publication about 
radiation was published in a journal for tumor surgery (again: relevant?) 
and then there were a few arguments about her work - may be in Health 
Physics around 1980 (???).

There are 24 pages of references in the book "No Immediate Danger" but most 
of them while serve to bring you out of focus and lose concentration:

First a number of articles are referred to several times - in some cases as 
many as four times (an example is a reference to C.J. Johnson (1984) and the 
Nevada fallout). Second some references are unnecessary: 24 references are 
given to the Chelyabinsk/Kyshtym catastrophe (in 1957) but since most of 
them (22 references) are found in Zhores Medvedev's book - it would have 
been quite enough to only refer to Medvedev. Bertell spends nine pages on 
writing down ("copying with distortions") material that all is found in 
Medvedev's book - to my opinion her contribution to the description of the 
disaster in Ural is zero.

Other references are questionable - from the Toronto Star, local newspapers 
in Colorado, a native American Chief from around 1850, a speech by the Pope, 
Catholic New Times, or the article "You are what you eat" from Mother Jones 
Magazine in 1981 (I still wonder who the authors were of many of the 
articles in the local newspapers - how would I know what it really is? Maybe 
just small "reader's feedback" by people like RB?). Some references are not 
direct and one must therefore go back 3-4 generations of the references to 
find the source (which I did in a few cases).
Among the references are also her own testimonies to U.S. authorities.

I summarize all this as unnecessary reference dilution = a long list that 
makes it hard and inefficient to get to any facts.

The OKLO phenomenon is referred to as being in "South Africa" and to have 
occurred 1700 years ago... (all that about nuclear waste and the number of 
zeroes can be difficult).

Any person who is into nuclear & radiation (especially those at ICRP, IAEA 
etc) seem to be seen as little generals who like making atomic bombs. The 
language is suggestive - decay is like little canons shooting bullets around 
etc.

This book was probably the basis for Dr. Bertell's alternative Nobel Prize 
in 1986 (1987?). She was basically presented as an expert in a number of 
Swedish newspapers (full pages).

The bomb testings in the fifties are blamed for the overweight of Americans 
(it is the iodine "connection" - I wonder if she was ever in the Deep South 
- there are quite a few overweight people there but not much of nuclear bomb 
atoms flying around in the area to my knowledge).

Aterosclerosis and coronary heart diseases are also caused by anything 
"nuclear" (well radiation).

If I misunderstood anything or didn't describe it correctly I am willing to 
modify my statements but remember that I have a good stack of documentation 
to go back to.

Sorry if this was too long - it all reflects my personal opinion late at 
night.

Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/bjorn_cedervall/

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