RE: the article about the contaminated fawn at Brookhaven lab

["Neil, David M" <neildm@ID.DOE.GOV>]

Knew I shoulda looked it up.  :-)

 

That's what I get for relying on protein memory.

Dave Neil               neildm@id.doe.gov

 

-----Original Message-----
From: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com [mailto:SAFarberMSPH@cs.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2002 9:16 AM
To: Neil, David M; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: the article about the contaminated fawn at Brookhaven lab

In a message dated 2/21/02 5:00:48 PM Pacific Standard Time, neildm@ID.DOE.GOV writes:

Cs137 is widespread in soil, a legacy of atmospheric testing (fallout).  Including your back yard. :-)  Plants take it up as a calcium mimic.

Just to provide a correctionn to above error.  Plants take Cs-137 up as a potassium analog. As I've mentioned in an earlier post on this BNL fawn story, Cs and K are chemical congeners being in the same family on the periodic table.

Interestingly fallout Cs-137 from weapon's testing or Chernobyl deposited as as carrier free Cs-137. Studies of forests in Belgium after the Chernobyl accident showed Cs-137 was actively absorbed by trees directly through the leaves, since trees have mechanisms to absorb potassium from the air and in the trees "thirst" for potassium absorbed Cs-137 in its place.

Stewart Farber
Public Health Scientist
email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com