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The emergency response organizations probably referred to the DOT's "Emergency
Response Guidebook." Guide 162 is the designated guide for a "low
specific activity" or "surface contaminated object" shipment, which probably
applies to this shipment. This guide states: "...If material
is released from package or bulk container, hazard will vary from low to
moderate...Consider inital downwind evacuation for at least 100 meters..."
The actual response was undoubtedly on the conservative side of these guidelines,
but I can't blame them.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
"Michael G. Stabin" wrote:
Perhaps
we should define a "relative hysteria index" (RHI). This raised "fears
of a nuclear disaster" and sent "hundreds of emergency workers racing to
the scene"? Puh-lease. Some dirty tools spilled on the road, and the RHI
= 0.97. For comparison
recently..... Aug 11,
2002, "Two people died Sunday when a tanker truck crashed on a bridge over
Interstate 4, the main route to Sea World, and erupted into flames, officials
said... " http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/11/tanker.crash/index.html<?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Aug 11, 2002, "A
tractor-trailer carrying a cargo of peaches slammed into two cars and killed
six people in Oklahoma, including a family of five from Nebraska, police
said... " http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/11/oklahoma.crash.ap/index.html<?xml:namespace
prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Aug
10, 2002, Westport, N.Y.
— A freight train spilled a hazardous powder Saturday as one car derailed
and was dragged for seven miles in northern New
York state, said state police… http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,60090,00.html RHI
= 0.0 for these incidents, apparently. I read the second story over the
weekend, but for some reason did not become fearful of major peach disaster
occurring. Mike Michael
G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
1161 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37232-2675
Phone (615) 343-0068
Fax (615) 322-3764
e-mail michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu
internet www.doseinfo-radar.com
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 10:46
AM
Subject: Re: Truck carrying 'low-level'
radioactive tools crashes
In
a message dated 8/14/02 9:27:43 AM Mountain Daylight Time, caspar@AECOM.YU.EDU
writes:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/081402/14nukecrash.html
This article
revealed several things, besides the rampant hysteria:
1. The
differences in packaging are either not understood or deliberately distorted
by the press and/or those who inform the press.
2.
Why is "low level" in quotes? this is defined by regulation.
Again, this is a nasty little (and I suspect deliberate) distorion, as
in "well they are trying to tell us it's low level, but we know..."
3.
The fact that there was no radioactive contamination is downplayed -- middle
of the article -- "same as in the manifest" without saying what that was.
Ruth Weiner,
Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com
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