RE: rad outreach programs

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@beta.tricity.wsu.edu>]

WSU TriCities has a museum quality shoe fitting fluoroscope in the 
library on display.  I'm sure the librarian, Harvey Gover, who can be 
reached at 100 Sprout Road, Richland, WA 99352, 509-375-9204, would be 
gald to take pictures of folks pretending to use it per your request.

Re the Mt. St. Helens eruption:  National Geographic notwithstanding, the 
radioactivity concentration in the the Mt. St. Helens ash was about the 
same as in soil in the surrounding countryside.  There was much confusion 
and some erroneous (in some cases deliberate) statements by scientists.  
Suggest you look up the article by Soldat et al. in Science about 1982.

Ron Kathren

On Tue, 4 Oct 1994, Free Spirit wrote:

> >oh, i'm also collecting video snipets from sci-fi (i use that term loosely) 
> >movies dealing with radiation and the effects on humans/other living things - 
> >any suggestions?  any advice on retrieving a copy of the 1950's version of 
> >radiation safety for the public would be just gosh golly swell!  this will 
> >complement my comic book card collection of super heros and villains that 
> >received their special talents from the effects of radiation...  i find this 
> >provides a reality check with the students and may actually encourage them to 
> >read about the topic...
> 
> 	Some side suggestions:
> 
> 	Can you get info/pictures on the old shoe checkers that checked your
> 	shoe fit by HIGH RATE fluro? (I remember seeing my feet and wiggling
> 	my toes, and wonder what it did to me. NO, brain dose was not high.)
> 
> 	I know in the 50's radiation sterilization of food was all the rage.
> 	(The armed forces wanted to do it to get around having to refrigerate
> 	stuff.) I seem to remember some records here showing the half life
> 	of irradiated cheese... (and I thought jalapina chedder was hot cheese.)
> 
> 	You might try telling them about current unusual sources of radiation.
> 
> 	1/ Mt St Helens emitted something like 1000 times the radiation of
> 	   three mile island. I seem to remember an issue of National
> 	   Geographics that mentioned that.
> 
> 	2/ The average cigarette smoker gets about 80 times normal background
> 	   dose to their lungs due to Polonium. (Again I seem remember that
> 	   as an article in National Geographics, but again I haven't gotten
> 	   around to searching them.)
> 
> 	Hope this helps. If you could use more info, bounce me back.
> 
> Frank R. Borger - Physicist     ___       How many physicists does it take to
> Michael Reese - U of Chicago   |___       change a light bulb? Only one. 
> Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _    According to Heisenberg, all you have
> net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu    | \|_)   to do is observe it, and you change
> ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-2517       |_)   it.
> 
>