Re: What to do ? ? ?

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

At 09:35 AM 8/13/2002 -0400, RuthWeiner@aol.com wrote:


> Your
>
> responses indicate that you apply reasonable prudence and good judgment
>
> in avoiding or mitigating most common environmental threats to health and
>
> safety (and your dentist applies reasonable prudence with that lead
>
> apron).  The same rational judgment should tell you that you are not
>
> going to be irradiated driving across Idaho.  Moreover, the same
>
> reasoning you apply to mosquito bites should be applied to the
>
> radiation-scare book you cite (I've forgotten the name).  You
>
> apparently dismiss the recorded West Nile virus deaths in New York but
>
> take the Ernest Sternglass fictions seriously.  


When someone makes a statement "I wouldn't drive that route without

a Geiger counter" and coupled with the (now deprecated) claims of

Sternglass, and being the generally curious type, I decided to take a

"look."


Actually, I think this look at the radiation levels has done more to make

me feel comfortable than anything else I've done--or that you've said. It

gives me hard numbers that people are over-reacting. It makes your

arguments more credible. Without actually seeing the numbers for myself,

I would tend to wonder who to believe.


I dismissed the West Nile deaths as a scare and I said the Canadian press

had compared it (at one point) to the flu. Yes, people have died. Yes,

people die from the flu. I have gotten the flu. I am still alive. I will

not actively seek West Nile virus and I DID wear long sleeve shirt and

long pants at the family reunion--and I applied DEET to my clothes, head

and neck...and probably got some on my hands. Yes, I'm aware of risks

from DEET, too!


Cheers,


Richard