Re: irradiated mail

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/28/02 2:42:44 PM Mountain Daylight Time, frantaj@AECL.CA writes:



> As I recall, those post office irradiators are beta (electron beams). Apparently they had problems achieving sufficient dose to all parts of the larger items going through the mail. I would imagine that increasing beam strength to compensate would eventually lead to cooking the paper on the "near side."
>
>  


It would have to be a pretty intense electron beam to bring about a chemical reaction, I would think, but the "cooking" sounds plausible.  Would that produce an irritant.?

Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com