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Re: tritiated water uptake
Paul,
In a message on another topic, you stated that RADSAFE is for discussions
among professionals. I fully agree with that.
Hence, I assumed that members would NOT apply the definition of "epidemic"
used by the general public, but would, instead, use the professionally
accepted meaning for the word.
This definition appears in several textbooks. The one I have handy is, "Basic
Guide to Industrial Hygiene," by Jeffrey Vincoli (Van Nostrand Reinhold,
1995). This book defines "epidemic" as: "The occurrence of cases that are of
similar nature in human populations in a particular geographic area and that
are clearly in excess of the usual incidence." With the possible exception of
"...in a particular geographic area..." I think that we are seeing an epidemic
of cases involving the intentional misuse of licensed material. I agree that
this is not the term to use with journalists, but I hope that RADSAFE can
remain a medium for professional communication without fear of
misinterpretation. I assume that the NRC agrees with me on this, since they
recently proposed rulemaking (since withdrawn) on the reporting of these cases.
Best of luck in compiling your list of these cases. I look forward to seeing
it.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
Here's to a risk free world, and other fantasies.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@detroitedison.com
Bill Lipton wrote:
>This sounds like a deliberate contamination event.
>There seems to be an epidemic of these . . ..
Epidemic? Per my dictionary -- "Epidemic: Spreading rapidly and widely
among the inhabitants of an area."
There are several thousand members of the Health Physics Society and
several thousand more "HP's" who are not members of the society. I estimate
there are several hundred thousand "radiation workers" who we provide
services to. In the last 10 years there appear to have been less than 20 of
these deliberate events. This is less than 2 per year and over a group
several hundred thousand in number. This is a rate of 10 to the -5 to 10 to
the -6 per year. I don't call than an epidemic.
A quote of "There seems to be an epidemic of these [contamination events].
. " is, in my opinion, just the type of quote that we as professional HP's
need to prevent. It is certainly one that if it had come from an
anti-nuclear group we would all be attacking.
What we have has been a series of discrete illegal uses of licensed
radioactive materials. They are crimes and the perpetrators needed to be
treated as criminals. The fact that we may be seeing greater reporting of
these events than in the past is not indicative of an epidemic. Perhaps if
we were to publicize the fate of the known perpetrators (loss of job, jail,
criminal prosecution, civil prosecution, etc.) these isolated events would
be even further decreased.
Do we believe that the misuse of radioactive materials is greater than
non-radioactive chemicals and poisons found in the workplace?
I have tried to compile a listing of the verified misuses of radioactive
and non-radioactive materials that involved exposure or contamination. If
people will provide what they know I will summarize the information and
publish it on Radsafe.
I welcome all comments.
Paul Lavely
Director
University of California, Berkeley
lavelyp@uclink2.berkeley.edu
(510) 643-7976