Norman Cohen wrote on Monday September 16, 2002 7:57
My understanding of the TFP is that Strontium-90 is used like a tracer. Sr90, as you know, has a half-life of about 29 years, and so the amount in baby teeth should be going down, not evening off and going up.
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Norm is chooses to keep repeating this nonsense, even after a number of people on this list have taken the time to explain to him how these things work, since about two years on this list now.
We can either ignore it, or we can go back into the archives and simply keep re-stating the explanation. The latter is not for the benefit of Norm (who apparently is incapable of learning anything, or simply chooses to ignore it for political reasons), but for any new people on this list who may get the impression that Norm's "mystery" remains unexplained (sort of like the crop circles "mystery" that keeps resurfacing every few years, hoping to snare a few souls who managed to miss getting caught the last time around...).
As stated previously, the reference book Environmental Radioactivity (4th edition, Eisenbud/Gesell), has
a section devoted to the behaviour of radionuclides from nuclear weapons test fallout, beginning on page 297 (Chapter 9, Nuclear Weapons).
Looking at the isolines of cumulative 90Sr deposits (Fig. 9-20 on page 299), we can see a large variability in local deposition rates, relative to global or North American average figures.
For instance, we can see that the area of the TFP surveys is inside the 80 mCi/km^2 isoline (as is much of the Midwest and Newfoundland and a small piece of western British Columbia - including the city of Vancouver - and Seattle in Wash. State), while southern California is outside the 40 mCi/km^2 isoline -- i.e. les than half as much 90Sr -- and Florida is just shy of 60 mCi/km^2.
Most of Europe is about the same as Florida & Bahamas, the higher levels being in the northern Mediterranean & Adriatic sea areas...
The heavy fallout in the TFP area, combined with other confounding factors like local calcium levels in soil & foods (i.e. diet deficiency) can easily lead to TFP results with 90Sr levels similar to those of 1960s vintage levels in places like San Francisco or Los Angeles -- and voila, we have a mysterious situation ripe for blaming on NPPs...
Two years ago, Norm wrote that "I'd certainly be interested in looking at this kind of data & I'll pass it on to
the TFP."
Well, so much for promises !
Norm also wrote that "It is my understanding, though, that the majority of teeth so far have come from either South Florida, New Jersey, or Long Island. With the Indian Point accident recently, I do believe that a large number of teeth have come in from that area of NY."
To which I replied,
"EXACTLY -- most of southern New England, including New Jersey and Long Island/NY fall inside the 80mCi/km^2 isoline for 90Sr bomb test fallout.
The southern tip of Florida as well as Cuba appear to be right on the 60mCi/km^2 isoline - with increasing values towards the north-east, in the direction of the Bahamas, Bermuda and the British Isles. By contrast, most of South America, Southern & West Africa and Australia are below 10 mCi/km^2, so don't even bother collecting teeth there (just quote their 1960s 90Sr levels and point out how much higher today's levels are in the TFP collection areas of the US -- all of course due to those evil NPPs !!).
You have a much better chance of scaring the public with the TFP data in places like Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Mineapolis/St.Paul, Des Moines, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver -- all of which fall inside or on the 80 mCi/km^2 isoline (northern Japan is also a good bet - make sure you point the accusing finger at last year's Tokaimura fuel fabrication plant accident... I mean, as long as you're going to talk about the Indian Point "accident", right ?)."
So round & round we go, on the merry-go-round, right Norm ?
Just out of curiosity, do you plan to trot out this bogey man on a semi-annual basis ? quarterly ? annual ?
Jaro