RE: S-35 Spill at UCSD

[David_S_Hyder@rl.gov]

Franz,

While I don't know how the news services are in Austria, I am familiar with
them here.  The average news article is written on about a sixth grade level
(for a 12 year old) or less.  And, I am willing to guess that 95% of the
reading population in the US, including the writer of the news article,
would not know what a "rem" or "millirem" is (they do know it is related to
radiation and therefore is bad) much less a "Becquerel" or a "curie".  And
you want to further confuse them by adding prefixes like "femto"?

Remember, over here it's not data that sells news papers.  Sensationalism
sells news papers.

And by the way, the spell checker on my brand new Microsoft Outlook 2000
didn't recognized "rem", "millirem", "becquerel", or "femto" either.

Sincerely,

David Hyder
Health Physicist
(509) 373-9652
David_S_Hyder@rl.gov
Hanford's Facility Evaluation Board


-----Original Message-----
From: Franz Schoenhofer [mailto:schoenho@via.at]
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 11:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: S-35 Spill at UCSD

I miss here - as is always the case when mass media report on contamination
and accidents - the information on how much was spilled in terms of mBq
(sorry my US friends, femtoCuries). Any estimation of doses - above nanoSv
(or 100 nanorem) or below femtoSv (or 100 femtorem)?

In the opinion of journalists "Radioactivity is Radioactivity", whether it
is MCi or mCi, GBq or mBq!

The same seems true concerning the message containing news from Hanford,
posted by Sandy. I missed any numbers, but I have not checked the web-site
mentioned in this message.

Franz
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