RE: High natural background at Ramsari

["Pickett, Bruce D" <Bruce.Pickett@PSS.Boeing.com>]

Thanks to Andy's note, I just looked at page 14 of Dr. Luckey's
"Radiation Hormesis". Luckey's reference for Ramsari's dose rate of 7 -
480 mGy/yr (700 mrad/yr - 48 rad/yr) appears to be a personal letter.
Are there any peer-reviewed documents that substantiate these high dose
rates? Does anyone know what the source of the radiation is?

48 rad/yr equates to about 5 mrad/hr - if this were something other than
"natural", they would have to post the town as a radiation area!

Bruce Pickett
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA
bruce.d.pickett@boeing.com

> ----------
> From: 	Andrew Karam[SMTP:karam.1@osu.edu]
> Sent: 	Monday, April 06, 1998 9:24 AM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	Re: High natural background at Ramsar
> 
> ...in the two charts in figures 2 & 3,  there is a very high dose rate
> of 48
> rem/yr listed for Ramsar or  Ramsari, Iran 
> 
> Does any Radsafer have Dr. Luckey's book to help us
> find out which of these figures is correct?
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Ramsari, 7-480 mGy/yr 
> Kerala, India, 4-13 mGy/yr
> parts of Brazil, 2-20 mGy/yr
> Araxi-Tapira, Brazil, 35 mGy/yr
> 
> (Luckey, 1991, p. 14, referenced in his text)
> 
> In addition, Kondo (1993) reported on high background areas in China
> of
> about 0.5 mSv/yr, again referencing other sources for these
> measurements.
> 
> The opinions expressed above are well-reasoned and insightful.
> Needless to
> say, they are not those of my employer. (with apologies to Michael
> Feldman)		
> 
> Andrew Karam, MS, CHP					(614) 292-1284
> (phone)
> The Ohio State University 					(614)
> 292-7002 (fax)
> Office of Radiation Safety					"The
> mind is not a vessel to
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> lighted." (Plutarch)	   
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>