Re: Strontium 90 vice Strontium 89

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

Sr-90 has a half-life of 30 years.  Given the analytical methods and the
small amounts that were there to begin with, I doubt if the decrease would
be readily observable in ten-year-old discarded teeth, all other things
about the teeth being equal.  Moreover, if small decreases were observable,
any discarded tooth would show a continuing decrease because of radioactive
decay.  Only a living tooth will continue to incorporate strontium (or
calcium either).  The concentration of Sr-90 in a tooth is a function of the
fallout pattern (which is a function of weather), the rate of intake of both
strontium and calcium in the diet, and the length of time the discarded
tooth has sat around before analysis.  The question is also not whether
"Sr-90 levels in teeth in the Toms River area are at levels equivalent to
teeth [presumably from the Toms River area also] tested in the late 1950s"
but whether they are the same, other conditions being equal, or different
from levels in teeth where there is no source of Sr-90 except fallout.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2000 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: Strontium 90 vice Strontium 89


>Hi Jacques,
>When we had this discussion about the Tooth Fairy Project a few months ago,
this
>line of reasoning was brought up and rejected. The fallout argument is not
>sufficient because Sr-90 levels in baby teeth should be going down if the
Sr-90 was
>from fallout. Sr-90 levels in teeth in the Toms River area are at levels
equivalent
>to teeth tested in the late 1950s, when above ground testing was at its
height. The
>point of the TFP is: if the Sr90 can not be attributed to
>fallout, because with half-lives, the amount of Sr90 should now be mininal,
where
>is the rest of the Sr90 being found in teeth coming from? The only answer I
can see
>is that it comes from nuclear reactors, perhaps a little leakage from
underground
>testing, and weapons labs.
>
>peace
>norm
>
>Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov wrote:
>
>> Fission produces both 89Sr and 90Sr......  on a curie basis, a vastly
greater
>> amount of the shorter-lived 89Sr.  If 90Sr is found without accompanying
89Sr,
>> it simply means that the fission product is so old that the 89Sr has died
away
>> (at least a couple of years old).   And 89Sr is a whole lot easier to
find in a
>> sample than the pure beta-emitter 90Sr.  If the strontium in any
environmental
>> or tooth sample is 90Sr, then it is clearly fallout.  If it came from
Oyster
>> Creek it would have to be mostly 89Sr.
>>
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