Re: Spikes and chest x-rays

["Don_Jordan" <Don_Jordan@fpm.uchicago.edu>]

The appeal of this yardstick to the lay media is obvious since it is one
they presume most 
people can relate to.  However, it might serve us better in educating the
public if we practiced making the comparison to natural background.
Gradually the public might come to realize that radiation is not something
special to which they are exposed but which is continuous, ubiquitous, and,
of course, inescapably natural.  

A few years ago I posted to this newsgroup some testimony before a
Congressional committee, quoted directly from the published transcript, in
which the Congressman testifying
swore that he did not believe that background radiation existed in _his_
state of West Virginia.  We have a very long way to go.

Don

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