Re: some details on St. Lucie

[BLHamrick@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/17/2002 8:13:42 AM Pacific Daylight Time, michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu writes:



> We should NOT stop monitoring, I'm not saying that, either. I'm just saying
>
> react in proportion to the hazard. If a box of dirty tools falls on the
>
> interstate, you don't need to scramble literally hundreds of emergency
>
> workers and terrorize the public to clean it up. If someone gets a 21 mrem
>
> unplanned exposure, log it, report it, and get back to working on something
>
> of actual significance.


Thank you very much.  We (i.e., health physics professionals) contribute to the public hysteria by even giving a nod to a 21 millirem exposure.  I mean Puh-Lease!  Record it, like a pilot would their flight hours.  We track it because small exposures can indeed add up over time, but is this in any way remarkable?  No.


And, as for closing a highway after contaminated tools fell out of a truck, I'll call you with a local emergency response agency evacuating 200 people from a building after finding an exempt source there.  We really need to be reaching out to our First Responders and educating them with all we've got, before we see a real death from a panic evacuation where there was no real hazard in the first place.


Barbara