Re: loosing, Tooth Fairy Project

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 21:36 01.08.2000 -0500, you wrote:
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>What miscarriages?  

Ruth, this was a misunderstanding. When reading your comment I also thought
in the first moment that "I lost them..." referred to the children. I
blamed it on my limited knowledge of English!

But nevertheless I cannot resist to comment on Ediths comment. First of all
I recognize that there have been quite a few contributions, being not anti,
but critical. I myself would not regard myself as pro-nuclear, but as well
as not anti-nuclear. I simply recognize the fact, that nuclear power is
needed - even so called "nuclear-free countries" without nuclear power
plants import a rather big share of base load from countries and companies
producing it with nuclear power plants!!! Simply because it is cheap. I see
the need to use isotopes produced in reactors and accelerators in medicine,
in industry, in ecology etc. I see big benefits and advantages in the use
of both nuclear power and isotopes and I have never understood, how an
ecologist, who advocates correctly that the CO2 emissions should be cut
down on the other side can be anti-nuclear. As a natural scientist I have
to clearly see the advantages and the disadvantages and to compare them. I
cannot fall down in psychologically motivated emotions, which are moreover
produced by certain groups who make much money on that, by mass media, who
need their sensational catastrophes in order to make more money, and
neglect all the benefits. Moreover as a natural scientist I have to compare
risks and I cannot fight the risk of femtoCuries of Sr-90 or Cs-137 and
neglect the picoCuries and nanoCuries of alpha-emitters like Rn-222 and
Ra-226. The one is artificial, the other is natural - not to say
"biologically" grown...... Edith should read the RADSAFE archive to find
out how much I myself have been flamed, because I am of the opinion that
irradiation of food is not necessary in our Western world, but might be a
good option to help developing and underdeveloped countries to ensure
enough food for their population.

>     Have you seen the Website: www.radiation.org , It presents
>    the findings of  world renowned scientists  who are supporting
>    the study of baby teeth for  levels of strontium 90.

Yes, after reading this comment I have looked at it. I have not looked for
everything, mostly on the Tooth Fairy Project, which I have criticized
extensively before as can be found in the RADSAFE archives. Frankly said, I
had a feeling, if I look for more, I would vomit. It is a compilation of
the worst possible scientific nonsense, which is presented in an extremely
professional way to create an atmosphere of trust and believe with
non-professionals and potential supporters and which works with all the
well known symbols for emotions - children, women (breast cancer), attacks
on the "FEDS", health, "independent scientists", "father of a child who
died from cancer" and many more key words. There are clearly target groups,
like the "concerned citizens", the "concerned mothers", the philanthrops. 

You wrote about "world renowned scientists". I must have overlooked their
names, because I do not see any ones at that web-site. Is it Alec Baldwin?
Regarding the discussions at RADSAFE and from the web-site I recognize that
he is an actor - but "concerned" about this and that, which is obviously a
good reason to be considered as an expert. In Europe nobody seems to know
this actor, so his involvement in European matters would not be of any use.
Is your "world renowned scientist" Mr. Sternglass? Since the seventies he
is famous for deliberately wrongly interpreting data, to twist them just to
fit his theories which do not hold against any critical inspection, to omit
and neglect data which do not fit his theories and some people claim (I
cannot verify it) that he has even falsified data. Mr. Gould? An attorney
at law? An Internal Medicine Specialist? I do not want to repeat the
various names mentioned for instance in the Teeth Project Seminar in Long
Island, but I have not detected anybody, who would even call himself
"radioecologist". Doesn't it sound scientific: "Seminar", "Project"? The
pictures of an obviously well organized meeting with the speakers in front,
the audience discussing etc. look impressive, but they do not impress me.
Any such pictures from a real scientific conference do not impress me
either. But obviously some others take the ceremonies as a sign of
scientific competence, putting the speakers to a high level of confidence
and trust. So, once again, who are the world renowned scientists? Moreover
I read a few times, that interim results were presented. I could not find
them on the web site, but maybe I overlooked them because my rather short
search. 

One scientific remark: It is stated that the level of Sr-90 in teeth was
approximately the same in the middle of the 50's when the nuclear weapon
states did their extensive bomb-test programme, when compared to teeth from
1979 to 1992. Of course it is!!!!! The concentration of Sr-90 in the
environment was in the middle of the 50's at very low levels - this can be
found in reports and textbooks and it does not need "world renowned
scientists" for that. The Sr-90 levels started to rise at about 1955 and
after their peak in 1963 and 1964 they started to decline, as it was the
case for C-14 and tritium. Now the levels are back to very low values,
though of course not at zero, because Sr-90 has a half life of about 30
years. Therefore Sr-90  m u s t  be present in teeth and everything else
would show that the analysis has not been performed correctly or the LLD
was too high. There exist many different studies on Sr-90 in the
environment - at least in Europe, but I would be surprised if they have not
been done in the USA as well. I would not regard myself as a world
authority on Sr-90 in the environment, but I have done several studies
myself and have a large compilation of literature available. If you think
that these people would like to hire me as a consultant, I would be
available. But I do not think they would, because scientific facts seem not
to be welcome. 

Ok, now I had my "rant". Maybe I took this occaison, because especially the
Tooth Fairy Project is for me a symbol of a way to emotionalize people, to
make them donate money and to support organisations, who claim themselves
to adhere to scientific principles, but only make politics and lobbying.
Maybe it is also, because tomorrow I will go to hospital to have surgery on
my right hand carpal tunnel syndrome and I might not be able to write for a
few days on my computer......

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


Please note my new telephone number at my office!

Office:
Ministerialrat 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: -43-1-71100-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331

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