Re: Low Doses and LNT

[Tsurikov Nick <ntsuriko@rgc.com.au>]

Hi, Radsafers

If the public impression that "there is no safe level of radiation" will   
not be changed (at least to the point of accepting some level of exposure   
which MAYBE will decrease some life expectancies by a couple of days, but   
will benefit all society) we will face more and more ridiculous   
situations.
(Yes, I am willing to sacrifice couple of days from my life - I am   
probably losing more per year drinking Guinness, not speaking about   
decrease in my life expectancy because of this)

1. How come that radiation exposure of employees in nuclear industry is   
monitored and the airline industry is exempt?

Maybe I am mistaken, but I think that any person inside the plane at, say   
25,000 feet, is exposed to external 'cosmic' radiation at a level of   
about 0.3 - 0.4 mrem/hour.  Am I right?

If "Personnel shall be monitored if they are likely to receive a dose in   
excess of 10% of the annual limits...":
All airline personnel shall wear personal dosimeters;
Frequent fliers shall be issued with personal dosimeters etc. etc.

I wonder what the reaction of John and Jane Doe will be if they will   
decide to go to Hawaii for holidays and half of the passengers in the   
front section of the plane will wear personal radiation monitors.  In   
addition to it, drinks will be served by the flight assistant with the   
TLD badge on the chain around her neck...

2. Another quite funny situation can occur if John Doe happens to be a   
building contractor, who is putting soil through the mesh to obtain a   
certain grade (say 5 mm) of material for cement mixing.  If traces of   
uranium and thorium (and, therefore, daughter product - radium) are   
present in this particular soil component (which is usually the case),   
then it is a "PRODUCT" (see Regulation and Licensing of Technologically   
Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) - draft at   
http://www.webpub.com/~crcpd/).  The draft suggest the exempt limit of 5   
pCi per gram of Ra-226 or Ra-228.  Since John produces a "MATERIAL WHOSE   
RADIOACTIVITY IS TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED BY CONTROLLABLE PRACTICES" it   
is a TENORM and, therefore, subject to different regulations.  Am I   
right?  The interesting thing is that in the soil around the place I live   
in radionuclide concentrations are between 2 and 11 pCi per gram, being   
on average 7.5 pCi/g.  (Dose rates all below 20 microrem/hour which will   
result in a maximum of about 175 mrem per year).  So what...?  In Kerala   
state in India gamma levels in excess of 500 microrem/hour have been   
recorded and people are still alive there.

One can imagine dozens of situations like this.

The possible results are brilliantly described by I.V. Filyushkin in "The   
Chernobyl Accident and The Resultant Long-Term Relocation of People"   
(Health Physics, vol.71, No.1, July 1996, pp.4-8):
"ONE MILLION people was prescribe to avoid exposure to low levels of   
radiation..."
"FOUR MILLION people... were needlessly included in post-Chernobyl   
legislation, their exposure did not exceed the natural background levels,   
characteristic of many inhabited areas around the world..."
In the part "Public Health Related Aspects of the Soviet Mentality" Mr   
Filyushkin mentioned that: "There was even more extensive censoring where   
radiation risk was concerned".  I think that we are in the situation of   
"one way" censoring.
Someone (sorry, e-mail is here somewhere but I can't find it) mentioned   
yesterday that if in the plane crash the container with radioisotopes   
will break, the letters on the first page of all papers will be 1 by 1   
metre.  If the container survives the crash, it will not be mentioned at   
all.

I totally agree that SILENCE IS KILLING US.
The proposal (probably crazy - they say all Russians are crazy), but   
nevertheless:
Let's try to educate anti-nuclear special interest groups first.  Let's   
have a Joint Conference of, say, Radiation Protection or Health Physics   
Society and guys like Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth.  Let's   
broadcast it like presidential candidates' debates, let's invite all the   
media.  Some sort of open forum.  Any questions asked and answered.  For   
example, what we are going to do when coal,oil and gas will run out?  And   
let's see what happens....

And, of course, these views are mine only, not those of my company.

Kind Regards
Nick Tsurikov
Radiation Safety Officer - RGC Mineral Sands Limited, Western Australia
P.O. Box 47
Eneabba, WA 6518, Australia
ph: 61+ 08 9956 9531
fax: 61+ 08 9956 9597
ntsuriko@rgc.com.au