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Norm's comments and Fallout timing



Norm,

You made the point that Sr-90 in recently collected teeth was similar in 
amount to that found in teeth of the late 1950s. and therefore something of a 
puzzle and perhaps suggestive of reactor emissions.  I don't think my answer 
to that was entirely clear, so I will comment again.  Although I don't have 
any exact figures at hand, Jacques Read agrees with me that a very large 
amount of fallout was created in the Soviet test series in 1961 and 1962.  He 
also makes the point that the fallout that currently exists is essentially 
dominated by that Soviet fallout.  In comments from you and others in the 
Tooth Fairy Project, there is no mention of this important fact.  And it is 
important.  Teeth collected in the late 1950s therefore would not have been 
impacted by this major source of fallout in 1961 and 1962, while teeth 
collected today will be impacted by the Soviet fallout.  If it is true that 
teeth collected today have Sr-90 in amounts not so different from teeth 
collected in the late 1950s, this may not be especially surprising in view of 
the large amounts of fallout that were deposited in the early 1960s.  I have 
seen graphs of the various fission products in air during those years and it 
supports the idea that the Soviet fallout in 1961 and 1962 dwarfed the 
fallout amounts in the 1950s.

To review your comments, you say that because Sr-90 in teeth today is not so 
different from that of the late 1950s,  that this possibly is an indication 
of releases from reactors, because one would expect the levels today to be 
much lower, than in the late 50s due to decay.  But in reaching that 
conclusion, you fail to consider the very large deposits of fallout in the 
early 1960s from the Soviet tests. You need to go back to your friends and 
tell them this line of argument is flawed, as it certainly is flawed.  It is 
flawed because those people giving you the information do not have a good 
grasp of the basic information.  For instance, if the amount of fallout 
created in the 1961 - 1962 Soviet test series was 3 or 4 times that created 
in the 1950s, then that alone could account for the similarity in the 
concentrations of Sr-90 in teeth of the 1950s as compared to teeth collected 
today.  It happens many times that the arguments of the activists fail on 
very simple facts.  This is one of those times, in my opinion.   
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