Re: more Rokke-DU....

[Russ Johnson <rujohnso@nmsu.edu>]

Agreed its a heavy metal toxin, but I'm not sure I would agree that dU

poses no radiological risk whatsoever. It is an alpha emitter, even if

its specific activity is exceptionally low. There is at least a

potential hazard to sensitive alveolar tissue, especially if the

effective biological half life in the lung is fairly long (don't know

what it is offhand). I wonder if a good study has been done lately in

regards to tissue or organ response to controlled doses of aerosolized

dU? That would tend to answer the question. At this point, it would be

difficult to convince govt regulators there is no radiological risk, and

likely impossible to convince the general public of that.

-Russ



A Karam 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----------------------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 ÃœRANIUM.  Michael R Dupray

>