One day story

["Stabin, Michael" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>]

Saturday, December 04, 2004, Associated Press - HOUSTON - An explosion

at a chemical plant Friday that could be heard 20 miles away caused a

large fire and sent up massive clouds of smoke...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140490,00.html





I ask you, in all seriousness, viewing the spectacular images of this

scene, would this have been a one day story if it had instead involved

any kind of nuclear facility? Tomorrow this will be forgotten, but will

be followed by a number of similar stories throughout 2005: tanker

trucks, rail cars, facilities full of toxic chemicals will be involved

in accidents. Entire communities will be evacuated, emergency responders

will be adversely affected, there may be loss of life. Will any efforts

comparable to those employed in nuclear-related industries to reduce and

optimize radiation dose be made to increase the safety of these

industries? No.



This is why, in my comments on the ICRP 2005 initiatives, I called an

"ethical consideration" the extreme lengths that we go to in protecting

humans, and now elements of the environment (as I call it, the "Dose to

Bunnies and Bushes Initiative") from doses of radiation comparable to

natural background levels. As much as we would all like more funding for

health physics studies, we have been chasing picoSv of dose to humans

for too long, and now are going to chase picoSv of dose to bunnies and

bushes, while society's resources could be spent instead on reducing

REAL morbidity and mortality elsewhere? This is simply wrong, and I will

not keep silent about it.





Mike



Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP

Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 

Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 

Vanderbilt University 

1161 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37232-2675 

Phone (615) 343-0068

Fax   (615) 322-3764

Pager (615) 835-5153

e-mail     michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu 

internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com



 

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