Re: Tooth Fairy Project releases Long Island results

[Jeffrey Lahr <jl64@PRISM.GATECH.EDU>]

At 10:09 AM 6/7/01 -0800, Sandy Perle wrote:

>Thanks to Peter for posting this article.

>

>Ah, a small glimmer of hoe! An actual acknowledgment that the levels

>in the Long Island teeth are lower than other areas. I would also

>expect that if they analyzed teeth (assumes good laboratory analysis

>techniques are employed)



This assumption quite a leap of faith.  It is clear that

the TFP is not concerned with good science and proper

techniques.  Our lab looked into the possibility of

analyzing some teeth from that area and we reviewed

the procedure used to produce the results that have

been released.  I don't have the reference handy, but

I recall that no effort was made to separate the Sr-90

from naturally occurring radium.  This fact explains

why activity values are much higher in Florida where

the groundwater is known to be higher in radium.  Unless

the strontium is separated before counting, the results

are really just a measurement of gross beta activity

in the teeth.



Jeffrey Lahr

Environmental Radiation Laboratory

Georgia Tech



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