Re: British Radioactive Pollution

["Björn Cedervall" <bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com>]

Dear Radsafers,

I calculated the other day that eating one kilo (kg, about 2.2 pounds) 
of shrimp containing 0.54 Bq technetium/kg is about 570.000 times less 
dangerous if converted into Sv (or rather nanoSv) than the dose from the 
natural body content of K-40 one obtains in a year. The basis for this 
calculation was ICRP67 (1993): 6.4E-10 Sv/Bq for an adult if I remember 
right.

Nevertheless, some key politicians here in Sweden are afraid of 
expressing anything clear to the public (like "this is a relatively 
trivial problem"). We have a political election 3 months from now so the 
politicians can be expected to maximize their actor's talents during 
this period.

When looking at the numbers - be cautious about the distinction between 
dry weight and wet weight. Furthermore - the highest concentrations were 
in seaweed (Fucus serratus and Fucus vesiculosus) but these are not 
consumed by people as far as I know - at least not because of its 
radioactivity concentration....

Politics - Believe me: 10 years ago I was fighting with media and one 
politician about krypton being different from freons - that particular 
politician (center party) spoke in Swedish Parliament about the ozon 
layer being destroyed by the nuclear power releases of krypton. When I 
wrote to her about the difference between molecules and atoms/natural 
elements she wrote a nasty letter back to me. Reading the Parliament 
closely, I understood that she had also confused "radiative gases" and 
"radioactive gases" (she had read - but probably not understood - a 
document about the greenhouse effect). Guess that no one else noticed in 
particular since most people don't dig into Parliament hearings (most 
media here are more focused on Paula Jones, whether cellular phones boil 
your brain or not and other types of info that "sell"). The 
frewon-krypton confusion formed the basis for at least about 30 
newspaper articles during the year that followed (I wrote 6-7 of them). 
The original source (which the politician referred to) for the confusion 
was a monthly "health magazine" that markets everything from carrots to 
crystal and color healing and various New Age related remedies (no units 
for "force" and "energy" there).

Well, all this was my personal ideas and may not necessarily reflect 
those of my employer. Leaving for a biodosimetry conference in Obninsk, 
Russia 12 hours from now so I will not be able to follow this for 
another week or so.

Yours Sincerely,

Bjorn Cedervall, PhD
Dept. Medical Radiation Biology,
Karolinska Institutet, Box 260,
S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
email: bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com
----------------------------------------------------
>Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 17:21:42 -0500 (CDT)
>Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>From: GACMail98@aol.com
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: British Radioactive Pollution
>
>BRITISH RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION CONTAMINATES NORDIC COASTS; GREENPEACE 
>CALLS FOR END TO SELLAFIELD DISCHARGES 
.........

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