Re: Ramsar, Iran - A.Karam & Z.Jaworowski

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Jaro, Group,

Sorry, I should have mentioned it, but Dr. Jaworowski's health kept him from
traveling. He is also unable to attend our "Medical Benefits of Low-Dose
Radiation Symposium in Washington Nov 15. He hopes to be able to get to a
Plenary at the ACS Meeting in April in San Diego.

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

"Franta, Jaroslav" wrote:
> 
> Thanks Andrew for sharing with us your experience of the visit to Ramsar,
> Iran.
> 
> As you are still unpacking, chances are you may have missed an interesting,
> related item in the RADSAFE posting by Jim Muckerheide on Wednesday November
> 01, 2000 4:56 PM.
> 
> Jim posted a link to Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski's paper, IONIZING RADIATION AND
> RADIOACTIVITY IN THE 20TH CENTURY,
>  for the Tehran Conference, at:
> http://cnts.wpi.edu/RSH/Docs/Zbigniew_Jaworowski_Iran_2000.htm
> 
> In it, Jaworowski writes :
> 
> <BEGIN QUOTE>
>  In some parts of Ramsar people are living in houses where the annual
> radiation dose is up to about 700 mGy , what is similar to the value of the
> tolerance dose from the 1920s, and corresponds to a lifetime dose of about
> 50 Gy. In the area of Ramsar people are exposed to so high radiation levels
> since several generations. The cytogenetic studies have shown differences
> between these people and the controls, but incidence of cancers and leukemia
> was not increased.
> Compared with the apparently non-harmful annual doses in the high natural
> radiation areas, the average doses received by the global population from
> man-made sources seem to be of no importance.
> <END QUOTE>
> 
> Comment:
> The readings you report appear to indicate annual & lifetime doses somewhat
> lower than the above numbers - based on very simplistic assumptions, and
> ignoring the lung dose from the Radon....  Still, they seem to be roughly in
> the same ball park (sorry, I'm not an HP - please enlighten me).
> Just out of curiosity - did you two happen to meet up at the Tehran
> conference or the Ramsar visit ?
> Looking forward to your write-up.
> Thanks.
> 
> Jaro
> frantaj@aecl.ca
> 
> From: Karam, Andrew [mailto:Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday October 31, 2000 1:26 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Ramsar, Iran
> 
> I just returned from a conference in Tehran in which, on the day following
> the meeting, we visited the very high background radiation area in Ramsar.
> It's safe to say that, had I not been present, I would have doubted some of
> the radiation levels we saw.  About a dozen people from the conference were
> present, in addition to several representatives from the Iranian equivalent
> of the NRC.
> 
> The area itself is underlain by igneous rocks that are apparently rich in
> NORM.  Hot springs abound, and the hot water dissolves Ra-226 from the
> rocks, depositing it in travertine (a calcium carbonate mineral) at and near
> the surface.  Some of the local houses are constructed from this stone, too,
> exposing them to higher concentrations of radon as well as elevated
> radiation levels.
> 
> We took survey meters with us and measured general area levels outside that
> ranged from "normal" background to about 1 mr/hr (this is from memory - I
> haven't unpacked my notes yet).  The radiation levels were very
> heterogeneous, and it's not really possible to give a "typical" or "average"
> level.  Inside one house we visited, some sections of the wall read up to
> about 14 mr/hr on contact with the wall, the general area readings were
> about 1 mr/hr, and the spot on the floor where the couple slept (this was in
> their bedroom) was about 2.2 mr/hr.  The couple living in this house are in
> their 60s and appear to be in good health.  Radon levels in this room at the
> time we were present were about 35 pCi/l (over 1000 bq/m^3) and we were told
> that, with windows closed, they are typically several times higher than
> this.  I took photos of the displays on both of the dose rate instruments
> used as well as the radon monitor and we were told the instruments were
> properly calibrated and were working correctly.
> <SNIP>
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