[ RadSafe ] Letter to the Muskegon Chronicle]

[bobcherry at cox.net]

Ah, me!

Mr. Salsman is correct to point out that I "have no training in reproductive toxicology or heavy metal toxicity" and that I am not a "medical doctor." Of course, I have never made such claims. (And, ironically, the activists accuse me of ad hominen attacks.) However, I have a great deal of training and experience in BS detection and I detect a lot of it from him.

The Army did not assign me "in 2000 to reply to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission petition on DU munitions." As Army Radiation Safety Officer at Headquarters, Department of the Army, it was my duty to do so. No one assigned me. Under my own authority and responsibility, I "assigned" myself.

Dr. Durakovic is not a retired Army colonel. He was on active duty for a while. He may still be a reserve colonel, but he does not have enough service credit for retirement as far as I know.

In his short tirade, Salsman made some other mistakes, but I have listed enough for you to get the gist. Again, someone is spouting activists' propaganda and writing about research but not doing it himself.

"Merely" Bob, but that is enough for me

PS. This is the last Radsafe will hear from me on this thread unless it is to report publication of my letter, but I will watch Radsafe with interest for what happens next.

> 
> From: James Salsman <james at bovik.org>
> Date: 2005/06/09 Thu PM 04:07:33 EDT
> To: gcarlson at muskegonchronicle.com,   pholmes at muskegonchronicle.com,  
>  dkolb at muskegonchronicle.com
> CC: radsafe at radlab.nl,   bobcherry at cox.net
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Letter to the Muskegon Chronicle
> 
> Robert N. Cherry, Jr., wrote in a Letter to the Editor
> of the Muskegon Chronicle:
> 
> >... To help you get started on your research, ask some folks
> > in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University
> > of Michigan (for example, Dr. Kearfott) or UM?s Radiation
> > Safety Service (for example, Dr. Mark Driscoll) for an
> > educated opinion on the potential biological effects of DU.
> 
> The chemical toxicity resulting from depleted uranium
> inhalation exposure is several orders of magnitude more
> hazardous than its radiological effects, so I recommend
> that you also contact a toxicologist familiar with heavy
> metal catalytic damage to DNA, and show them these
> publications from the peer-reviewed medical literature:
> 
> http://www.bovik.org/du/Miller-DNA-damage.pdf
> http://www.bovik.org/du/chromosome-abberations.pdf
> http://www.bovik.org/du/devtox-mice.pdf
> http://www.bovik.org/du/du-on-rats.pdf
> http://www.bovik.org/du/inhalation-est.pdf *
> http://www.bovik.org/du/5_Durakovic.pdf *
> http://www.bovik.org/du/4_Durakovic.pdf *
> http://ije.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/33/1/74 
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12854660&dopt=Abstract
> 
> * I especially recommend the publications by Asaf Durakovic,
> M.D., a former colleague of Dr. Cherry, and also a retired Army
> Colonel, but a medical doctor with toxicology training who
> commanded a Medical Detachment Unit in the first Gulf War,
> serving as a Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and
> the Chief of the Nuclear Medicine Service at the Wilmington, DE
> Veteran's Administration Medical Center, who was fired in 1997
> after speaking out against the dangers of DU inhalation.
> 
> Dr. Cherry is not a medical doctor, but was merely a Radiation
> Safety Officer and Health Physicist, and as such has no training
> in reproductive toxicology or heavy metal toxicity.  The Army
> assigned him in 2000 to reply to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission
> petition on DU munitions from Doug Rokke, another Army officer
> who was fired after speaking out against the dangers of depleted
> uranium, so it is unsurprising that Dr. Cherry ignores depleted
> uranium's heavy metal toxicity and catalytic chromosome damage,
> focusing on its minor radiological hazard instead.
> 
> And that certainly proves that the Muskegon Chronicle was correct
> in questioning the truthfulness of Dr. Cherry and his superiors.
> 
> Sincerely,
> James Salsman
> Mountain View, CA
> 
> 
>