RE: Ltr to WashPost

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@cpcug.org>]

Friends:



Today the Washington Post published a condensation of this letter, using all

of the last paragraph and most of the preceding one.



Not just the way I would have liked it, but better than nothing.



Ted Rockwell



-----Original Message-----

From: Ted Rockwell [mailto:tedrock@cpcug.org]

Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 10:42 AM

To: RADSAFE; ANS-PIE

Subject: Ltr to WashPost





Friends:



Today I'm sending the following ltr-to-editor, Washington Post.  The gist of

the article referred to is pretty apparent from my ltr.



Ted Rockwell



John Mintz’s article, “Radiation Sickness Drug Developed” (p.A2, May 19)

conveys some interesting information, but unfortunately contains some false

statements that inflame the unwarranted fear of low-dose radiation already

severely distorting public policy.



He refers to “radiation sickness, which would kill many more people in

nuclear attacks than the initial blast,”  and writes, “most fatalities

caused by a nuclear explosion or dirty bomb blast would come from [radiation

effects].”



The article blurs the tremendous difference between nuclear bombs and “dirty

bombs,” but in either case, radiation sickness is a very minor part of the

problem.  At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, tens of thousands of people were killed

by the blast and the searing heat, but only a few hundred died of radiation

effects, mostly years later.  And all responsible studies of “dirty bombs”

conclude that they would cause few, if any, serious radiation health

effects.  The fact that these reports often conclude that “people will

probably panic” from a dirty bomb attack does not mean there is any reason

to panic.  If the explosion didn’t get you, the radiation won’t.



Of course, “more research needs to be done,” and “the idea is to stockpile

enough doses across the country to treat both first responders and…the

general population.”  We can understand the drug companies seeing it that

way, and it is an interesting research topic.  But there are many more

urgent national problems needing our attention.