[ RadSafe ] Radiation in San Fran's water

[BLHamrick at aol.com]

I was very dissatisfied with how the quotes turned out, so I'm going to try  
this again:
 
In a message dated 4/22/2005 11:05:32 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,   
ncohen12 at comcast.net writes:

<<“Ordinary garbage” does not  normally include radioactive   
elements. As a matter of fact, none  of these elements are ordinary;  they  
are manmade.>>

Technically, "ordinary garbage" generally does include  radioactive  
elements. 
And, harm associated with exposure to  radioactive materials  emanates from 
both the "natural" and "man-made"  forms.  That's really an  artificial 
distinction that serves  political, but not scientific purposes.

<<Here’s  the kicker,  and an even greater concern if they did dump these   
barrels into  the bay: water isn’t just wet. Water is corrosive. And  when  
it  meets metal, it steals the ions and causes rust. If you have  a   
55-gallon drum eroding from the radiation inside, and the water   outside,  
you have a potentially deadly experiment going  on.
This  is one good reason to stop the Lennar home building project  that is   
slated to break ground soon on Parcel A at the Shipyard.  The need  for  
housing does not outweigh the damage to the health  of local  people should  
this turf be razed, liberating an  incredible amount of  toxic dust and  
exposing arriving community  members to a water table  that is nothing less  
than uranium  soup.>>
 
Not to be cynical, but, in my experience, housing developments are   
generally 
opposed in California by nearby populations due to traffic   concerns.  Since 
this will rarely garner sufficient political capital  to  halt a development, 
the opposition coalitions generally turn to  some  alleged critical 
environmental concern (e.g., an endangered  species, residual  contamination, 
etc.) to turn 
the issue into  something other than "I don't want  more traffic on my 
commute."   The tactic has been reasonably successful,  and I expect it to 
continue,  
because it is politically expedient.  I  suspect the politicians  all think 
they're the next Erin Brockovich (which, in my  opinion is  nothing to be 
proud 
of...but they did make a movie about her,  starring  Julia Roberts, no 
less...so...there's obviously some mileage in   it).

<<There is no excuse for selling a  
community on  housing  when they will end up in their grave.>>

Which, just BTW, is where we will all end up.  Just FYI - life is  100%  
fatal.

<<Carl Sagan, on  page 322 of “Cosmos,”  explains that  “Rongalup residents 
ended up with  strontium  concentrated in their bones,  and radioactive 
iodine 
concentrated   
in their thyroids. Two thirds of  the children, and one third of the  adults  
later developed thyroid  abnormalities, growth retardation  or malignant   
tumors.”>>

No offense to Dr. Sagan, and maybe this is substantiated somewhere, but  I'd  
really be interested in seeing a peer-reviewed study of this  population, 
rather  than hearing anecdotal comments on it, which have  little scientific  
weight.

<<Not  everyone is killed by  the flash of a bomb or the meltdown of a 
reactor   
or even the  fallout. However, the fallout will be around for quite  some  
time  as Sagan tells us. Most strontium 90 decays in 96 years  and cesium   
137 in 100 years.>>
 
Technically, they both have a half-life of about 30 years, so this   
statement 
alone calls into serious question any other comments made in the  same  
document.

<<Dennis  Kyne is a combat veteran  with 15 years in the U.S. Army. He holds 
a   
degree in political  science cum laude from San Jose State University  with  
an  emphasis on nuclear proliferation. >>

And, it was pretty clear from this article, even without his  CV,  that he 
has 
virtually no technical expertise in this area.

Barbara L.  Hamrick