NY Times Photo

[Ccja@aol.com]

Nobody's mentioned (I think) the picture in the NYT of Thursday Oct. 9, page
A12. The article is about meat safety. There's an Ag Dept chemist in the
picture, holding a chicken's carcass in his left hand and a Victoreen 450B/P
survey meter in his right hand. He's immediately adjacent to a machine that
has a plaque on it reading: IRRADIATOR CESIUM-137 GAMMA RADIATION SOURCE.
Below that there's a (apparently) taped-on CAUTION RAM sign.

My first question is: What exactly is he monitoring? One might suggest that
he's been having problems getting the shutter to close, so maybe he holds the
meter up first, to verify that it has, but, it looks like he's surveying the
chicken. He can't be looking for activation products (662keV photons), so the
only guess left is that he's ensuring that the chicken didn't become
contaminated, during its sojourn in the irradiator. One of the hungry
consultants in Radsafeland ought to hustle on down to the Eastern Research
Center, in Wyndmoor, Penn., and tell them that, a: they're using the wrong
instrument; or, b: if it's the right instrument, i.e., the source is leaking
so badly that an ion-chambered survey meter is appropriate to scan for
contamination, the chicken is not the only one who's going to have a hard row
to hoe.

chris alston
ccja@aol.com