Re: Frontline and communicating with public

["John Moulder" <jmoulder@post.its.mcw.edu>]

> Subject: Frontline and communicating with public 
>  
> One thing about the communication of dose I really caught note of was 
> the consistent use of millirems. Hundreds of thousands to cause 
> harm,  thousands this and thousands that, not the use of rem and 
> a conversion that may be lost on a great number of "the public".  
> Very effective in demonstrating relative levels.

Yes it was effective.  But it was also a major problem.  I think of things 
like acute lethal effects in Sv, and was terrified of dropping a factor of 100 
or 1000 somewhere.  

I do this on the non-ionizing side also (power-frequency fields always in mG, 
or microT, even when the number of zeros gets insane), and I always do it in 
formal testimony and in press comments.  it's a good habit to get into when 
you are talking to the public.



John Moulder (jmoulder@its.mcw.edu)