[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Our double standard; re update on natural gas disaster in China
Jerry,
Just to expand a bit on your point about stochastic cancer risk -- the
reason I didn't mention it in my initial comment is because even a huge,
near-lethal acute radiation dose won't increase one's risk of cancer by more
than a percentage or two -- from the typical 24% to something like 25 or
26% -- hardly comparable to an instant death from gas poisoning.
To increase your cancer risk to near-100%, one would have to receive a
chronic dose, a dozen or more times higher than the near-lethal acute dose,
over several years, so as to avoid death from ARS (acute radiation
syndrome).
The circumstances allowing such a large, protracted exposure are extremely
unusual.
The best known example is that of the radium dial painters, whose internal
contamination led to doses of up to many thousands of rads.
With all the radiation monitoring and containment technology & procedures we
have these days, its hard to imagine circumstances leading to such massive
contamination (chewing on spent fuel pellets perhaps ? ...I don't think so).
And as we saw in the Chernobyl disaster, even iodine-131 contamination
(which was entirely avoidable) didn't cause deaths on the scale of last
week's natural gas disaster in China.
Jaro
http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-----Original Message-----
From: cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA
[mailto:cdn-nucl-l-admin@informer2.cis.McMaster.CA]On Behalf Of Jerry
Cuttler
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 8:11 AM
To: multiple cdn; RADSAFE; ANS Member Exchange Listserv
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] Our double standard; re update on natural gas disaster
in China
Jaro,
We created the scare of "stochastic" cancer deaths and congenital
malformations from any radiation dose. (Ironically, the data from the low
dose rate exposure of 8,000 residents who lived 9-20 years in cobalt-60
contaminated apartments in Taiwan show great reductions in cancer deaths and
congenital malformations.)
It seems our nuclear scare is far worse than the familiar fear of H2S
poisoning from fossil fuel processing.
Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: Jaro
To: multiple cdn ; RADSAFE
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 5:41 PM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] update on natural gas disaster in China
One of the industrial projects I worked on in the 90's was for a major
petrochemical refinery in east end Montreal. The safety training we got -
the closest thing to ARW training I had before entering the nuclear industry
- involved safety procedures following an accidental release of hydrogen
sulphide, the poison gas that killed so many in China on Tuesday.
There are no gas wells in Montreal, but the crude oil refining process
involves a desulphurisation step, in which the H2S is removed from the
product (wonder how H2S is removed from natural gas, before being sent to
consumers by pipeline ?)
Anyway, it struck me as remarkable how different the two hazards are :
Unless one is working in a fuel processing plant with highly-enriched
nuclear fuel, there is virtually no chance of receiving a life-threatening
radiation dose in the nuke industry, while H2S can certainly kill you on the
spot.
To my knowledge, there are no environmentalist or political initiatives
underway to close down the refineries in Quebec or anywhere else, or indeed
the natural gas industry.
Quite the contrary - NG is the darling of many antinuke activists.
Hypocrisy reigns supreme.
Jaro
http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1072480207996&call_pageid=970599119419
Dec. 27, 2003. 01:00 AM
Survivors tell of China's `death zone'
Bodies found lying in fields, roads
Thousands treated for gas poisoning
************************************************************************
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/