RE: more Rokke-DU....

[howard long <hflong@pacbell.net>]

Depleted uranium is a heavy metal, like lead and mercury, the toxicity of which are well known. It should be handled in the same way - carefully but not with blind fear.

 

Howard Long 



A Karam <paksbi@rit.edu> wrote:

Actually, you have both helped make my points for me.  As health physicists, we understand that DU poses no radiological risk.  However, we have to acknowledge that there is a chemical risk from it.  If we speak of DU strictly from the perspective of health physics and continue saying that it poses no radiological risk, we are technically correct, but missing the larger picture.  

 

To be accurate and complete, and to avoid sounding like we're sugar-coating the matter, we should be prepared to discuss both the lack of radiological risk AND the presence of chemical risk, AND the fact that even the chemical hazard is present only under certain conditions.

 

Andy

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



So--- DU is not harmless. That's nice to know, but to put this information in perspective, I'd like to see a list of those materials that are known to be absolutely harmless under all possible conditions of exposure and at all dose levels.

Jerry Cohen

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A 1 micron diameter particle of DU emits only 2.5 alpha particles per year. The radiotoxicity is not the problem. It is the chemical toxicity. That is where the confusion and misunderstanding lies. The radiation bugaboo is attached to a heavy metal just because of its name ÜRANIUM.  Michael R Dupray