Re: Good Morning America

[BFLOOD@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

I'd like to point out that Ms. Lunden may really believe what she has been
saying about plutonium - it's easy for us to point out flaws at a technical
level, but where did Ms. Lunden get her education in health physics? from
us? (I hope not!) I beleive a polite letter informing her of the nature of
plutonium and a comparison to other toxins (such as the one just distributed
in radsafe) is appropriate. We should give her chance to get it right before
we criticize for getting it wrong. True, in a perfect world, a journalist
shouldn't need this, but ...


>Correct - looking back to some of the "ancient history" of development of 
>the various limits (ICRP 2, etc.) -- a good number of what appear to be 
>limits much lower than might be indicated by radiation characteristics 
>alone can be traced to early studies that showed heavy metal toxicity as 
>an overriding consideration.  This is idscussed briefly in note 52f of ICRP 
>6, which states "Because of the low specific activity of certain other 
>radioactive materials with very long radioactive half-lives, _the mass or 
>chemical toxicity will in general determine maximum rates of intake.  
>Similar considerations will apply also to the values given in Table I of 
>IRCP Publication 2._  Similar discussions have, of course, appeared in 
>later literature, but the references in ICRP 2 and ICRP 6 are among the 
>earliest (1959) I could find.
>
>The Joan Lunden program to be broadcast tonight promises to be 
>"interesting" -- it was originally produced to highlight the activities of 
>the DOE Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) program and has been in 
>production for quite some time (around a year) - much of it was taped 
>during a NEST exercise in New Orleans.
>
>Is it too much to ask for both accuracy AND ratings ????
>
>Happy television viewing fellow HPs.
>
>>>> usual disclaimer <<<
>
>Bruce Dicey
>Sr. Health Physicist
>EPA Las Vegas
>(702) 798-2320
>
Bob Flood
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.
(415) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu