Re: Package Irradiation

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Scott Wilson <scottwilson14@HOME.COM>

An: Radsafe Newsgroup <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Sonntag, 14. Oktober 2001 07:54

Betreff: Package Irradiation





>Would package and mail irradiation be an economical solution to the

unwanted

>transport of biological agent contamination via commercial and government

>mail systems?



----------------------------------------------------------------



You can kill bacteria and supposedly virus with high radiation doses - no

doubt. Though I am far from being an expert on this topic, I can easily

demonstrate, that this would not only be not economical, but simply

unacceptable and ridiculous.



Yes, one can bring a man to the moon - and what is more important, bring him

back again. You can destroy organic matter 100 % with probably some

Mega-Grays. Where will you do it? Are you going to install radiation cells

with the necessary shielding at every airport, every post office, every bus-

and railway station? Are you educating millions of people, who would be able

to perform the irradiation and securing the irradiation cells and care for

radiation protection? Do you want to transport every day thousands of highly

radioactive sources on your streets to replace the "old ones" and transport

these ones back - still "deadly" radioactive? Do you want to hire another

million of people, who would explain, why the chocolate in the luggage or in

the package which grandmother sent for Christmas is a stinky mess, or the

candy or the fruits and vegetables sent to markets? Radiation doses required

to kill bacteria reliably would destroy almost any food-stuff and probably

other organic matter as well.



Oh yes, the terrorists have really hit you in the USA. They humiliate you -

as I read on RADSAFE, people are proposing to give to flight passengers the

choice for strip search (!!!!! like prisoners and criminals!!!) or x-raying

(again like criminals). The stock exchange and companies react so well, to

ruin economics by their hysteric reactions.

I hope it is because of the weekend, that nobody answered similarily

negative as I did just now. Radiation experts work all the time with

probabilities of cancer, fatalities etc. - so why is nobody at RADSAFE using

the same approach for suicide attacks, biological weapons attack and

terrorist attacks at all?



I am not going to join the common hystery - I will fly to the USA in the end

of October!



Franz









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