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RE : One day story - compare Bhopal, Seveso.....
This trend is very interesting as I strongly feel that WE bare also a part
of the responsibility for the mis-perception. Bhopal is always part of any
of my Rad Safety training to illustrate what chemical plants can do...and so
is the nice picture about propane BBQ...Do you ever compare the chances of
getting HIV from a blood spill with the chances of getting cancer from a
radioactive spill ? Do we ever compare erythema with chemical burns ? I
always recall that the Gentilly II nuclear power plant was partly evacuated
once because of a chlorine leak in one of the nearby plant, not the
opposite...
I am trained in HAZMAT first response for my facility here, I am also
trained as first responder, medical, and rope and rescue for confined
spaces. I am looking for the day when other radsafers will be able to see
the world outside rad safety as I hear many interesting "exaggeration" of
specific HAZMAT response for radioactive material. Guess WHO is responsible
of establishing the BIG difference between rad spill and chemical spills ?
Health physicists !!! Job conservation ? Enthusiastic response ? I don' have
the answer. But for sure, many HPs I have heard during conferences are
over-estimating the risk of a rad spill in a university or a nuclear
medicine department !!!
Is there any tentative to group radiation safety within Safety and IH
department at your facility ? Of course not, it is an "aberration" to mix
it. I agree, for specialized facility, this is simply not practical and not
feasible but the message we are sending is that radiation IS SO SPECIAL that
we need extra people, extra monies to cope with a limited increase of risk
in fatality or even morbidity.
Don't get me wrong here, I still value the work all HPs are doing in there
respective fields and I certainly understand the challenges in a nuclear
power plant. After all, I am an HP as well. But perception will change only
if people can relate to some references, and comparing radiation exposure in
"numbers of X-rays" is no longer enough to get a full picture.I wish that we
can truly compare all the risks using a same references. I have to say that
regulatory agencies do not help to keep it rational when they are asking for
inventories of microcuries of H-3 when certain toxins can be bought "of the
shelf"...And we, experts, are buying this trend. I am not even starting to
talk about Homeland Insecurity (great word John...)
My opinion only
Stéphane Jean-François, Eng., CHP
Spécialiste en radioprotection/Health Physics specialist
Gestion des risques/Risk Management
Centre de recherche thérapeutique de Merck Frosst/Merck Frosst Center for
Therapeutic Research
514-428-8695
FAX: 514-428-8670
stephane_jeanfrancois@merck.com
www.merckfrosstlab.ca
-----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] De la part de Falo, Gerald A Dr
KADIX
Envoyé : Monday, December 06, 2004 10:43 AM
À : radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Objet : RE: One day story - compare Bhopal, Seveso.....
All,
Interestingly, there was a story on NPR on the 20th anniversary of Bhopal:
//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4199681. According to my
memory of the broadcast, they interviewed one woman whose husband died, and
she received about US$4,000 and an apt without utility service as
compensation. It appears that some was compensation offered. I think I
recall that at the time of the disaster or soon afterward, the Indian
authorities issued an arrest warrant for the chairman of Union Carbide.
I also agree with much of what Bob Cherry said about conspiracies. One
aspect of conspiracy theories is that they morph to fit all circumstances so
that evidence to the contrary becomes proof of conspiracy; that is, in the
minds of conspiracy theorists, the conspirators let out just enough
information to *disprove* a given conspiracy just to throw off the masses.
Finally, I think that the boards of publicly held companies have a fiduciary
duty to stockholders to run the company in manner to serve the interests of
the stockholders not the public, the "truth," or anyone else. I'm not a
legal expert, so I don't know what laws apply. It's in the interest of
publicly held companies to maximize profits. Privately held companies and
advocacy groups, of course, do not have that obligation.
The statements and opinions expressed herein are my responsibility; no one
else (certainly not my employer) is responsible, but I still reserve the
right to make mistakes.
Check core temperature: yes./no? Yes! - Homer Simpson
Gerald A. Falo, Ph.D., CHP
Kadix Systems
U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine
jerry.falo@us.army.mil
410-436-4852
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 4:14 PM
To: 'Stabin, Michael'; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: AW: One day story - compare Bhopal, Seveso.....
Mike,
I agree with a lot of what has been written in reply to your posting.
But let us go a step further:
First question: Does anybody on RADSAFE know the name "Bhopal"? On Friday,
Dec. 3rd was the twentieth anniversary of an unbelievable catastrophe, when
in a chemical factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal, India, chemicals were
spread by an explosion over the vicinity of the factory, causing within the
same night 8,000 deaths and altogether until now about 20 000 deaths. The
average time of the firstly affected persons to die was 3 minutes. More than
100 000 people are still affected by the poisoning. Union Carbide was bought
by Dow Chemical in 2001. Neither of those companies paid any compensations
to victims or their relatives. The place of the factory has not been cleaned
up yet after 20 years.
Second question: Does anybody know the name "Seveso"? This should be an
easier question, because it is not as far away as India and does not involve
those "underdogs" of India, but it is in Italy!
I know of the stories (I recently read one again about millions affected by
Chernobyl), but I know no answer for the question, why nuclear is so much in
focus of the mass media and the average population, though we have so much
more severe catastrophes - not only in nature, but also in chemical
industry.
Best regards,
Franz
Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-
> radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] Im Auftrag von Stabin, Michael
> Gesendet: Sonntag, 05. Dezember 2004 04:44
> An: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
> Betreff: One day story
>
>
> 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
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