[ RadSafe ] Re: YES. we remain our own worse enemy

[Albrodsky at aol.com]

George and Sandy. I agree with all you say and more. I put on the last 
"homeland security" course that I will do at New Orleans, hoping that someone in the 
profession will recognize that, in the case of emergency or terrorist 
response, any fixed exposure limits -- as have been placed in regulations at the 
mR/hour level orginially only for use in management of exposures in peacetime -- 
are not appropriate, but are improperly being used to scare responders at 
levels that they could work in for a lifetime in peacetime.  After the first two 
H-bomb detonations at CASTLE in 1954, I jumped off a helicopter into 30,000 
mR/hour for 5 minutes to pick up my neutron fission track analysis detectors. I 
would do that at least 10 times to save your lives.  This is 1 million times the 
intensity that responders are looking at on their so-called "pagers.''  I am 
still trying to get to the Secretary of Homeland Security, so if you have him 
for dinner some night please invite me. (George, maybe you can invite Tom 
Ridge, if he is back in your area; I would still like to talk with him, as my 
Congressman recommended to him over a year ago.)  Get a copy of "Public Protection 
from Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Terrorism," from 
www.medicalphysics.org, if you do not already have one and read my chapters, and those of others. 
If you can not afford it, I'll buy you one. You are leaders in the profession 
and perhaps you can find ways to turn all of this nonsense around before 
over-regulation and exaggeration of radiation risks in the public mind kills 
millions.  Be well and happy in the meantime, Allen