RE: Cannot have it both ways

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

Well said.  I would also add that in some cases

Congress, who represent the people, have held hearings

on risks and mandated various radiation and

enviromental practices.  I think there is plenty of

"blame" to go around.



--- "Fritz A. Seiler" <faseiler@NMIA.COM> wrote:

> Dear Jerry,

> 

> I agree that the public is not completely

> irrational.  The enormous cleanup

> cost are probably

> unavoidable.  What bothers me every once in a while,

> and here I am in the

> good company of

> others like Ted Rockwell, is that we are not all as

> lily white as we would

> like to be where the

> misconceptions of the public are concerned.  ALARA

> itself is not a bad

> concept, but once it

> is pursued down to ridiculous levels of accuracy,

> i.e., below the minimum

> significant risk, it

> then becomes a practice of bad science. Remember

> that Joe Alvarez and I have

> shown ten

> years ago that the statistically minimal significant

> risk lies just above a

> risk of a few percent,

> and that using even a radiation cancer risk as low

> as 1% makes the risk

> value much smaller

> than its error!  I think that our professional

> community needs to be

> reminded every once in a

> while of the memorable quote of Carl Friedrich

> Gauss:   "Nichts beweist

> wissenschaftliche

> Ignoranz besser als übertriebene Genauigkeit im

> Zahlenrechnen!"  or

> translated into English:

> "Nothing proves scientific ignorance more

> conclusively than excessive

> precision in numerical

> calculations!"

> 

> Have a nice rest of the weekend,

> 

> Fritz

>  

>

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

>   Fritz A. Seiler, Ph.D.

>   Sigma Five Consulting:       Private:

>   P.O. Box 1709                   P.O. Box 437

>   Los Lunas, NM 87031         Tome', NM 87060

>   Tel.:      505-866-5193         Tel. 505-866-6976

>   Fax:      505-866-5197         USA

>  

>

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

> 

>  

>

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

>   "This is the hour when democracy must justify

>   itself by capacity  for effective decision, or

> risk

>   destruction or desintegration. Europe is dotted

>   with the ruins of right decisions taken too late."

> 

>   "America's Responsibility in the Current Crisis"

>   Manifesto of the Christian Realists. May, 1940.

>  

>

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

> 

> 

> 

>    -----Original Message-----

>   From: jjcohen [mailto:jjcohen@prodigy.net]

>   Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 11:35 AM

>   To: Fritz A. Seiler; LNMolino@AOL.COM;

> radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

>   Subject: Re: Cannot have it both ways

> 

> 

>         The public is not completely irrational.

> Given that the government

> requires massive expenditures to clean up trivial

> quantities of residual

> radioactive contamination, how can we suggest that

> consequences of any

> "dirty bomb" events would be no big deal?

> 

> 

> 





=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"We cannot escape danger, or the fear of danger, by crawling into bed and pulling the covers over our heads."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





	

		

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