Re: Road kill sampling method: -Reply

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

At 02:35 PM 4/17/98 -0500, you wrote:
>     Animal control 
>     captured him and then had to "put him to sleep" as he was probing 
>     about 200,000 dpm b/g.

Perhaps someone can explain to me why this animal had to die. I'm not one
of those wild-eyed animal rights advocates, and I understand the absurdity
of people in leather shoes protesting fur coats. But this animal was guilty
of nothing more than reading above background, and was summarily executed.
That's a reaction I would expect from an avowed anti-nuke, but not from
peole who are supposed to have a more realistic understanding of radiation
and its risks.

Perhaps the critter couldn't be considered contained - maybe he could get
offsite and spread the radioactive material. Maybe it would end up as a
handbag, contaminating someone's makeup, which would be spread on the skin,
some of it absorbed - I'm sure there's someone at EPA who could calculate
the femto-sievert associated with this pathway, and estimate the number of
fatal cancers to ensue.

---------
Bob Flood
Dosimetry Group Leader
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(650) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu