Re: the article about the contaminated fawn at Brookhaven lab

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

I have again to say: Here we go again!





-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Tom O'Dou <todou@cabreraservices.com>

An: Norman Cohen <ncohen12@HOME.COM>

Cc: Radsafe (E-mail) <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Mittwoch, 20. Februar 2002 01:31

Betreff: Re: the article about the contaminated fawn at Brookhaven lab





Norm,





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

Do you owe Norman Cohen any explanation? He will only use it for his

anti-nuclear website.

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There may very well be some higher levels of Cs-137 in soils at BNL.

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The article does not mention Cs-137.

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However, the levels cited in the article are not high and in fact don't make

a lot of sense.  When I ran an environmental lab in Maine we periodically

got venison from local hunters and the levels were between 3 and 30 pCi/gr.

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

Of what? Tritium? C-14? Cs-137? Pu-239? Or even worse Ra-226? Are you not

aware, that the radionuclide defines the dose?

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





We traced the source to fallot suspended in lichens (the green weeds that

grow in the bark of trees).

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Deer do not feed on lichens. Reindeers do. Please provide another

explanation,.



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We summized the reasons were that 1) lichens accumulate heavy metals in the

environment because they are in convenient locations to filter the rain

traveling down the sides of trees, and 2) because the deer eat the lichens

when there is little other greenery around.



I'm sure there are other accumulation mechanisms at work but the fact is

that the article is seriously flawed and does not indicate a problem.





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This I agree on.



Franz









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