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AW: Nucwaste -Dinner Party and Pellegrino
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]Im Auftrag von Stewart Farber
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. Dezember 2002 00:58
An: Jerry Cohen; Radsafe
Betreff: Re: Nucwaste -Dinner Party and Pellegrino
Jerry:
Where did you see this article?
As an interesting proposed radioactive offering at the dinner party, the
Newmans
should serve a variety of domestic and imported commercial mineral waters,
all of
which contain elevated levels of radium-226.
Some years ago in a 1979 study, I funded a study of the Ra-226 and Ra-228
levels
of about 18 popular mineral waters [done using beta gamma coincidence
counting
thus getting some very good data]. I found that most of these mineral
waters
[other than Perrier which has salt levels so low it doesn't even meet US
standards for a "mineral water" and should not be labelled as such thus also
having very low levels of Ra-226] had Ra-226 levels high enough such that
drinking the mineral water delivered more radiation dose than drinking the
discharge water from the average nuclear plant.
So drinking Vichy water and lime, or Pellegrino and lime is more of a
radiation
risk than the discharge of radioactivity from a nuclear power plant [and
certainly much more than nuclear waste disposal]
------------------------------------------------------------
For your information:
There have been a lot of different studies conducted not only in Europe
about radioactivity of drinking and mineral water. The European Union has
issued a directive about drinking water, which contains also regulations
about the radioactivity. I personally have done quite a lot of measurements
on radioactivity in drinking water and mineral water. Your statement that
mineral waters contain elevated concentrations of radium is not correct - it
may be, but it is not the rule! Your comment about Perrier is correct!
Unfortunately the new definition in the European Union of "Natural Mineral
Water" has changed and is not any more related to mineral content, but
simply to the fact that it originates from the ground..... In Germany
recently a large and comprehensive survey on radioactivity in drinking water
and mineral water was finished. So you can be assured, that the question of
radioactivity in drinking water - including doses to the population - has
been addressed in Europe. The problem of radon in water has been
investigated since decades in Scandinavia, because it might really pose a
not negligible problem (for some on RADSAFE a source of beneficial health
effects....).
-----------------------------------------------------------
At the time I conducted this study, the utility I was working for refused to
allow me to put out a press release and publicize the results because they
stated
they were "afraid they would get sued" by the mineral water companies [for
telling the truth apparently].
--------------------------------
A preliminary first study, financed by a TV station, on radioactivity of
drinking water in Germany resulted in a scandal, because the mineral water
companies were accused of poisoning the population and it is well
documented, that people came to supermarkets and dropped glass mineral water
bottles at the entrance.
----------------------------------------------
Go figure. I tried to argue that a suit would be
the best thing that could ever happen since it would give us a chance to get
millions of dollars of free publicity for a radiation risk perspective issue
that
people could understand. However, such was not to be.
-----------------------------------
I was interviewed for a German TV station on this issue. I was able to avoid
all those suggestive questions of the interviewer about the terrible risks
etc. I tried a comparison to show, that the permissible levels for
radionuclides like Ra-226 and Ra-228 were because of their very high dose
factors extremely low, in order to show, that authorities were eager to
protect the population from radiation risks. I mentioned that they were much
lower than for plutonium - the effect was just the other way round -
plutonium is so well known, to be deadly, how deadly must radium be!
Don't count on the publics common sense!
Franz
> With a radioactive entrée do you serve white wine or red?
----------------------------------------------
Is there anybody aware, that wine contains tritium and C-14? I used it some
time ago to date the wine......
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