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

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Group,

In response to several inquiries about our Nov 15 Washington "Medical Benefits
of LDR" Symposium, see:
http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh/News/Nov_15_Symposium.htm

We are at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut, on Nov. 15. 

There's an earlier announcement letter about the Program, plus Workshops on
taking action on the 16th and 17th. These are at the Marriott Wardman Park.

Anyone who wants to support actions to assess and implement LDR Medical
Benefits, and support outreach on the issue, is welcome.

Please join us, and invite any others that have interest in the topic. For
"gov't staff" there is no charge, though any contributions are gratefully
accepted. :-)

You can also get some information on our Newsletter at:
http://www.imakenews.com/rsh

Subscribe if you want to receive it (sub/unsub, and text or html, under your
control).

(We'll have a separate distribution for science/data reports.)

Thanks.

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

Jim Muckerheide wrote:
> 
> 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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