RE: Good Morning America

[damcclure@Lanl.GOV (Donald A. McClure 7-3243 DX)]

>>I saw that portion of the show as well (I was home sick, I swear!), and what
>>perplexes me is that the Los Alamos folks who must have surely been there
>>would allow Lunden into that facility when they MUST have known that the
>>only way the press knows how to describe plutonium is using the words
>>"deadliest substance know to man" and/or "instant death ..."
>
>All right, all right.
>
>I have to take issue with people knocking Joan and her writers.
>
>I didn't tape the segment, but if you watched it, and were paying close
>attention (as I was), Ms Lunden said:
>
>"Plutonium is ... one of the deadliest elements known."
>
>Elements, not substances.  Anyone want to show me botulotoxin on the
>periodic chart?  And, fer crying out loud, she said "one of the", not "the".
>That means it could be in the top 10% and be 11th on the list.  Tha acute
>tox info that several people provided me after my initial query shows Pu
>rates in the top 10 or 5 of toxic _elements_.
>
>Nor, in fact, did she say anything about instant death.  She said that
>inhalation of an amount the size of a head of a pin will cause death.
>Instant?  No.  Just death.
>
>Has anyone bothered to do the volume to density to activty to dose calculation?
>
>Or are the members of this collective too busy reinforcing anti-media,
>anti-hoopla earthworks to try to see things from another perspective?
>
>Sheesh.
>
>John
>
>ObComment:  It was a nice story, though.  I liked the EOD grunts in the foam.
>
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>
Good Shot.  Consensus here (LANL) seems to be that the piece was on the
search team and as such was pretty good.  Even our local activist groups
have quit saying that Pu is the deadliest substance known to man.  Most
people know that is just not true.  Ms. London even held a ball of it for
the camera!

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*       damcclure@lanl.gov       *
*       Donald A. McClure        *
* Los Alamos National Laboratory *
* Dynamic Experimentation, DX-DO *
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