Re: K40 in dead sea

[Dov Brickner <brickner@mail.inter.net.il>]

At 01:28 PM 2/18/98 -0600, you wrote:
>
-------------------------------------------
>
>For your information:
>
>The dead sea does not only contain a lot of potassium, but the concentration
>of radium-226 is very high - I do not remember how much it was exactly. So
>be careful, not to swallow the water - I expect that it will taste very
>salty!
>
>Franz
>
Please, don't even think to swallow dead sea water, not because it's
negligable radioactivity but because it contains too much magnesium. There
was a report of a hypermagnesemia case due to drinking few CC's of dead sea
water some years ago -I don't have the reference now but I can get it within
a few days.
Dov Brickner (Dubi) MD

Beer Sheva   -  ISRAEL

brickner@mail.inter.net.il