Re: Caldicott conference this weekend Sept. 26/27 1998

["Phil V. Egidi" <7pe@ornl.gov>]

I too attended this symposium, and wanted to recognize Dr. Raabe's presence and
performance in a very unfriendly and sometimes hostile situation.  There was
surely disagreement, and much rhetoric, and a LOT of debatable epidemeology
(Morgenstern/Rocketdyne, Steve Wing).  Balance was not the object of this
symposium.  I was particularly insulted with the accusations that all HPs are
lackeys of the man and would not do the right thing in order to protect their
jobs (paraphrased, but that was the point).

There were some interesting papers, for example there was one from the U.K. on
chromosomal damage noted three or four generations after what appear to be
normal cell repair (yep, apparantly healthy cells that show missrepair some
generations after the insult), and another on the political and corporate
implications of MOX.  Dr. Myron Pollycove cave a very interesting talk on cell
repair, but he was under the weather, and it showed in his presentation, which
was not very well received by the general audiance.  There was also a
presentation from a physician who practices around Oak Ridge with some of the
problems he is having with a-typical cancers and illnesses in his patients.

STAR says the procedings are to be posted on the web sometime soon.

The concept of having opposing views was a good one, although the organizers
need to be more balanced in their speaker selection in the future.  I would
hope that the activists would at least listen to new data, or opposing data
without rejecting it out of hand.

The audience members ranged from medical and HP professionals to activists with
no technical or medical background, so communication of radiation concepts,
quantities, doses, etc. was probably over many of their heads.  Perhaps a more
neutral organization could organize a similar symposium to at least keep the
dialogue open.  The HPS is seen as too pro-nuclear and the STAR foundation is
openly anti-nuclear.

By the second session on Sunday afternoon, I had enough rhetoric and opted for
the American Museum of Natural History.  Simply the best mineral collection I
have ever seen in one place!


Phil Egidi
ORNL/Grand Junction
7pe@ornl.gov

Otto G. Raabe wrote:

> Sunday, September 27, 1998
>
> This weekend I attended and represented the Health Physics Society at the
> STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) Foundation Symposium "Recent
> Studies of Low Level Radiation and Implications for Medicine and the
> Nuclear Industry" held in rented space at the New York Academy of Medicine.



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