What to do ? ? ?

["Richard L. Hess" <lists@richardhess.com>]

I joined this list within the last few months to try and learn more about 

protecting myself--and more importantly my two boys ages (almost) 8 and 

9--in case we were near a "dirty bomb" or someone dove a plane into San 

Onofre and ruptured the containment vessel(s).



I realize that the chance of either of these two scenarios occuring is very 

small, but these scenarios (and others) are in our minds. I guess I can 

thank the news media for hyping up some of the dangers.



I understand the difference between controlled, scientific testing and 

journalistic sensationalism, but I also believe at least to some degree, 

"where there's smoke there's fire."



I cannot imagine that ALL of the material in "Killing our Own" by Wasseman 

and Solomon is made up of whole cloth. (the text to this book is available 

online at http://www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/ ) Isn't there 

some background truth to this--even if it's exaggerated by a sensationalist 

press?



Take for example, the Windscale nuclear disaster in 1957 in England. 

Wasseman's book states "But several months later British officials conceded 

to a United Nations conference at Geneva that nearly seven hundred curies 

of cesium and strontium had been released, plus twenty thousand curies of 

I-131....A study of health data in downwind European countries later 

indicated a clear impact of the accident on infant-mortality rates."



I am especially interested in this as two girls, ages 11 and 9, were likely 

playing outside (probably with horses) downwind of this disaster. The one 

who was 9 at the time died from Oligodendroglioma in 1999, and both 

exhibited thyroid problems. The one who was 11 is a good friend of mine. Is 

this a mere coincidence? Yes, it can be brushed away as "anecdotal." When 

does "anecdotal" become real, especially when controlled experiments are 

unethical?



I realize that our life style must come with some risks, but it's the 

silent ones that don't give you any warning that are the most scary.



 From personal observation, there are a lot of people who do over-react to 

these risks.



I drove to Waterton/Glacier Park (and beyond) a few weeks ago, and when I 

showed a friend of mine (a native of Montana) the route I was taking (I-15 

to I-90) he said, "I wouldn't drive that route without a Geiger counter." 

So I went and got an Aware RM-70 unit and connected it to my HP 100LX palm 

top and took a constant log of the radiation exposure on essentially the 

entire trip.



Although the device I purchased is sensitive to alpha, beta, and gamma, it 

was installed inside the vehicle (and inside the center console or glove 

compartment as well) which provided complete shielding to alpha (one would 

assume) as well as probably substantial shielding for beta. The normal 

background radiation ran between 9-12 µR/hour for the entire trip. The 

highest peak was about 24 µR/hour recorded at the lip of the Berkeley Pit 

abandoned Anaconda Copper mine in the city of Butte.



With this, I convinced myself that the problem might be perceived to be 

worse than it is (24µR/hr is not frightening to me). It's good to know, 

however, that at least this route, although perceived risky by a friend, 

seemed safe, at least at this time.



To state the subject of this message in another way, where is the line 

between prudence and paranoia?



At this point I have a stockpile of KI tablets (I'm not planning on taking 

them any time soon), fiber dust masks (probably useless, but if wet MIGHT 

plate out heavier alpha particles to avoid them getting into your lungs and 

decaying in there for a while), and two CDV-700 Geiger counters plus the 

Aware unit.



Since we live in earthquake country, we keep about a month's supply of food 

and water around our house.



Any other suggestions?



Cheers,



Richard



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