Re: What to do ? ? ?

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

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Richard L. Hess <lists@richardhess.com>

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

Datum: Montag, 12. August 2002 01:23

Betreff: What to do ? ? ?





>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 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."

>

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

There is another "proverb": "Repeating nonsense thousands of times, does not

make it true."

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>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."





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I do not know the actual numbers by heart. What I remember is, that indeed

most of the released radioactivity must have been I-131 (and noble gases of

course!), the relation to radiocesium might be correct, but I do not buy a

large amount of Sr-90, because during the Chernobyl accident only little

Sr-90 was released and deposited in the near vicinity of the plant. I guess

that the temperature in Chernobyl was much higher than in Windscale. Even

more embarrassing is the story about the "downwind European countries" and

the "clear impact on infant-mortality rates". First: Please take a map and

look, where Windscale, now called Sellafield, is. To help you locate it. it

is in Cumbria, north of Manchester. The closest European soil is about 600

(sixhundred) km away. You call such a distance "downwind"? Did the wind blow

directly toward Europe? Is there no chance that during weeks the wind has

turned? Who is claiming the "clear impact on infant-mortality rates" in

Europe? Nothing has been observed and though the releases from Chernobyl and

the fallout in Europe were obviously higher by orders of magnitude than from

Windscale, no increased infant-mortality rates were observed. The

countermeasure taken in Cumbria and maybe in adjacent counties, was to

confiscate the milk, because of the I-131. I cannot remember that any

countermeasures for Radiocesium were necessary. Just to round it up, there

was a significant release of Po-210, which was produced there in order to be

used as a neutron source together with beryllium in nuclear weapons.

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On one side I appreciate your willingness to learn about such things, but on

the other side I think that it should be not to difficult to find out about

sensationalism, about the constant pressure of certain groups to frighten

people in order to influence them in their way and use public perception for

their social and political purposes. It is not by chance, that in these

horror stories almost always children and infants are put forward as

victims, because this makes the public very receptive. All this fear of

dirty bombs, anthrax, jetliners crashing into nuclear power plants,

terrorism etc. is exaggerated, with clear goals behind.



I think, it would be time that US citizens would calm down and look a little

more realistic at these "risks".



Franz





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