Dr.Gofman--I just wonder..

[NiagaraNet@AOL.COM]

Subj: Dr.Gofman--I just wonder..

Hello All Radsafers:
I rarely post here--but I thought I'd pose a few questions with big question marks as some food for thought.

Dr. John W. Gofman--I just wonder...
And just HOW LONG has Dr. Gofman been involved with radioactive materials?
Wasn't he a CO-discoverer of one or another of the isotopes of Pu?
Wasn't he one of the original Manhattan Engineering District (Project) scientists?
Didn't he later go on to discover HDL/LDL?

And just WHO are We to be taking pot shots at a career spanning five or six decades? Show me those references to his discredit--if you please.

If you eliminate the "No Level-Low Level" opinion, then there is certainly limited room for "Hormesis" proclamation now is there?

Remember, Atoms for Peace?

Sincerely,
L.H. Ricciuti,
Niagara Falls, New York
Email:  NiagaraNet@aol.com
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*Niagara Falls, New York, USA--was the free world's largest Uranium metal production center for the entire Manhattan A-bomb Project and beyond.

How many of you HPs knew that one? And yes, I have the citation.
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The associated comments are my own and do not represent those of the offices of NASA or any other agency.
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BELOW - GOFMAN, JOHN W.   Vitae\partial

          John William Gofman is Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology in the University of California at Berkeley, and Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine at San Francisco.  

        He is the author of several books and more than a hundred

scientific papers in peer-review journals in the fields of nuclear / physical chemistry, coronary heart disease, ultracentrifugal analysis of the serum lipoproteins, the relationship of human chromosomes to cancer, and the biological effects of radiation, with especial reference to causation of cancer and hereditary injury.

A Narrative Chronology

          While a graduate student at Berkeley, Gofman co-discovered protactinium-232, uranium-232, protactinium-233, and uranium-233, and proved the slow and fast neutron fissionability of uranium-233. Post-doctorally, he continued work related to the chemistry of plutonium and the atomic bomb development. At that early period, less than a quarter of a milligram of plutonium-239 existed, but a half-milligram was urgently needed for physical measurements in the Manhattan Project. At the request of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gofman and Robert Connick irradiated a ton of uranyl nitrate by placing it around the Berkeley cyclotron (to capture neutrons), for a total exposure period of six weeks, with operation night and day. In 110 Gilman Hall, they scaled up Gofman's previous test-tube-sized sodium uranyl acetate process for the plutonium's chemical extraction. Dissolving 10-pound batches of the "hot" ton in big Pyrex jars, and working around the clock with the help of eight or ten others, they reduced the ton to a half cc of liquid containing 1.2 milligrams of plutonium (twice as much as expected).  After the plutonium work, Gofman completed medical school. In 1947, he began his research on coronary heart disease and, by developing special flotation ultracentrifugal techniques, he and his colleagues demonstrated the existence of diverse low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Their work on lipoprotein chemistry and health consequences included the first prospective studies demonstrating that high LDL levels represent a risk-factor for coronary heart disease and that low HDL levels represent a risk-factor for coronary heart disease. His principal book on the heart disease research is Coronary Heart Disease (1959, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher).
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*Ironically or not, Niagara County, Niagara Falls, New York, has the highest heart disease rate in the nation. There is over one million pounds of U buried there from past MED/AEC activities. Other, additional unadressed burials remain. Go figure.
Dr. Gofman links long term low level exposures to heart disease. Again, go figure.