Re: irradiated mail

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@attbi.com>]

Jim,



As noted, e-beams, not gammas. E-beams are "politically-correct" vs.

radioisotopes/radioactivity.



Another fool's errand pushed by ignorance by "authorities" and "marketing"

playing on anti-radiation perceptions.



Regards, Jim





on 8/28/02 6:00 PM, Jim Hardeman at Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us wrote:



> Ruth -

> 

> Based on what I saw about the "irradiation machines", I think you're probably

> looking at electron beams rather than gamma or X-rays. I would suspect the

> reaction of electrons w/ the organic sulfides would be similar to that of

> alphas.

> 

> I've heard stories (that's the best I can characterize them) of the clear

> plastic windows on irradiated envelopes being browned / charred, other

> plastics (floppy disks, CD's, etc.) being "melted" or deformed. To my mind the

> chemical reactions in irradiated plastics are as likely, if not more likely,

> to be responsible for the production of "irritants" as the irradiation of

> paper ... assuming for the sake of argument, of course, that some sort of

> irritants are actually produced by the irradiation process.

> 

> For what it's worth, when I was working on the Radiation Sterilizers, Inc.

> (RSI) cleanup here in Decatur, GA seemingly a lifetime ago (it was only 1988),

> we were working with paper products, predominantly cardboard boxes, that had

> been sterilized with gamma doses in the megarad range ... and we handled those

> products with no ill effects. Now granted, we were surveying them for

> contamination, so we did have latex gloves, etc. ... so that may not be a

> valid data point ... but in the thousands of person-hours that we worked with

> these products, I don't recall anybody saying anything about any sort of

> irritant.

> 

> My $0.02 worth ...

> 

> Jim Hardeman

> Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us

> 

>>>> <RuthWeiner@AOL.COM> 8/28/2002 14:04:54 >>>

> Re the government report that suggests that radiation may have caused some

> chemical changes in paper, which then produces skin irritation.

> 

> High-wet-strength hard-surface paper is produced by the "kraft" process

> ("Kraft"  is the German word for "strength"), in which the lignins are removed

> from wood using organic reduced sulfur compounds -- sulfides related to H2S.

> The sulfides are responsible, incidentally, for the noxious odor from kraft

> pulp mills.  Paper pulp is wood with the lignins removed.   White paper is

> bleached with chlorine dioxide or related oxidizing compounds.

> Low-wet-strength paper, like a lot of cardboard (and egg cartons, and the

> center roll for paper towels and toilet paper) is produced by a process that

> uses sulfites (SO3-) and removes lignins an oxidative rather than a reducing

> process. 

> 

> Alphas would almost certainly react with organic sulfide residues, but I

> expect the irradiation of mail would be gamma or x-ray, not alpha, if you are

> going to kill anthrax bacteria.  Gammas would also react with organic sufides

> as well as with the cellulose in the paper itself, but I doubt if enough

> irritant would be produced to cause a physiological effect. I did my

> dissertation work in this area, and we had to really zap a small molecule to

> detect any chemical change at all.   The irradiation that produces color

> changes in crystals  is appreantly not enough to produce chemical changes that

> can be detected without instrumentation.

> 

> X-rays produce chemical changes in photographic film, and might produce some

> ancillary changes that could cause irritation, but I don't know that x-ray

> technicians complain about irritation.  Xerox is a chemical process that

> leaves a discernible residue (so does ink, for that matter) and I don't know

> of generalized complaints about chemical irritation from either.  If x-rays or

> gamma radiation were producing an irritant in paper products, wouldn't that

> irritant be different for white paper, colored paper, cardboard, Xeroxed

> labels, handwritten envelopes, black ink, and colored inks?  I'd like to see a

> double-blind experiment where mail handlers handle unirradiated mail that they

> think has been irradiated, and irradiated mail that they think hasn't been

> irradiated. 

> 

> Ruth   

> 

> Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

> ruthweiner@aol.com

> 

> Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

> ruthweiner@aol.com

> 



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