RE: Article on radiation fear and disaster response.

["Jaro" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>]

John & co.,



I re-posted the article on the Canadian nuclear listserv, and got an

interesting - and I think quite valid - reply from a colleague (see below).



 Jaro

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A15666-

2003Sep15&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle

 Radiation Chicken Little

  By Theodore Rockwell

<snip>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



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

From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA

[mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA]On Behalf Of Brown,

Morgan

Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 2:41 PM

To: multiple cdn

Subject: RE: [cdn-nucl-l] FW: Article on radiation fear and disaster

response.



Interesting reading.  But I'm not sure if the statement "We don't treat

other spills and leaks so fearfully" is necessarily true.  Do you remember

the media noise surrounding the transformer being moved in northern Ontario

in 1985, the one that leaked PCB-laced oil?

http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/POPs_Inc/proceedings/lusaka/BUCCINI2.html :

"The first major incident occurred on April 13, 1985, when a PCB transformer

that was being transported across Canada on a flat-bed truck leaked PCB

fluid over 100 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway. The contaminated

highway pavement was ultimately torn up and replaced. There was great

concern expressed in the media about the potential health implications for

people travelling the highway behind the truck."

and

http://www.eastoakland.com/pcb.html :

"Because there were very few incinerators most PCB's would have to be

trucked long distances to reach them, and because humans are not perfect

some would be spilled in transit. We saw one example of what that could mean

in April of 1985 when a transformer being hauled from Ontario to Alberta

developed a leak and dripped PCB on the Trans Canada highway between Thunder

Bay and Kenora, Ont. The total amount leaked was a much less than one

percent of the PCB sprayed every year on that same road few years earlier,

but this happened during a provincial election campaign. Further it was a

desperate campaign for then-premiere Frank Miller because his predecessor

Bill Davis had figuratively stabbed Miller in the back before retiring.

Miller was a chemical engineer and he must have known better, but he was

more politician than engineer. He reacted as a politician looking for votes

and contemptuous of the facts, rather than as an engineer with a problem to

solve. He had the highway closed and traffic detoured hundreds of miles on a

winding two-lane road through Fort Francis. Aside from the danger of

detouring heavy traffic over a second-rate road the detour alone did more

ecological damage than the spill, because cars and trucks on the detour

burned tens of thousands of gallons more gas than they would have on the

direct route. Meanwhile doctors explained the danger with the illustration

that if you walked through the whole area of the spill and smoked one

cigarette, you would be in more danger from the cigarette than from the

spill. This was in the days when cigarettes were not considered dangerous.

Then finally Miller came up with the ultimate solution. Rather than try to

wash the spilled PCB off the highway his government would just re-pave the

highway and lock the PCB into the pavement. As a chemical engineer Miller

knew that the PCB would last longer than the pavement and that it would

certainly be released some day, but as a politician he found a way to spend

money and to be seen to be doing something about a problem. "





- Morgan Brown

Any opinions are those of the author(s).





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

From: Jaro [mailto:jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca]

Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 1:49 PM

To: multiple cdn

Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] FW: Article on radiation fear and disaster

response.





FYI, forwarded from Radsafe.....

 Jaro

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^





************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/