RE: Bugs May Spread Radioactivity - this is new news?

["Fleming, Kenneth" <knflemin@bechtel.com>]

If you can imagine ants . . . try earthworms.  A study was commissioned at
one of the local National Labs to quantify how much radioactivity could be
ingested and retained within the living tissue.  The worms were harvested
live using mustard powder ladened water.  (Poured onto a surface of soil,
earthworms will come to the soil surface; sounds like a second business
opportunity.)  The worms were kept on moistened paper towels in petri dishes
where all their excrement was collected.  After being kept in the kennel for
several days and all material within the GI tract was cleared, the worms
were pureed.  Both fractions were analyzed.

Also in close proximity, radioactive contamination was noted on the roadways
due to contaminated frogs being made roadkill by traffic.  Once noticed,
traffic patterns in the area were controlled and the contaminated locations
covered with tape until they were decontaminated.  Not sure what happened to
the carcasses.  It was a big enough story to hit the Star.  I'm sure there
are many similar stories from SRS.

The study was an attempt to quantify the little known pathway of
contaminated ground to worm to bird and in various ways to man.  I'm not
sure of the results, but several papers were presented.  I'm more concerned
with the local population of geese which make their way back and forth from
the Oak Ridge Reservation.

Kenny Fleming CHP CSP
FUSRAP Radiological Control Supervisor
knflemin@bechtel.com
(423) 220-2306
(423) 220-2464 FAX


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Joel Baumbaugh [SMTP:baumbaug@nosc.mil]
> Sent:	Thursday, October 08, 1998 1:32 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	Re: Bugs May Spread Radioactivity - this is new news?
> 
> 
> 
> 	Radsafers,
> 
> 	Oh-oh, another story,
> 
> 	Once upon a time, long - long ago in a far - far away land, when I
> was working at a University (unnamed) - here in sunny San Diego, I was
> surveying around the Radioactive Waste building and found a similar
> problem.  Robber-Ants had "broken into" a "fresh" bag of multi-millicurie
> (GBq range) P-32 contaminated waste and were transporting their new found
> treasure back to their queen and her progeny.  If memory serves me well,
> the single-file trail (about 50 feet in length) was reading about 2,000
> CPM [120k Bq] (at about one inch [2-3 cm]) with a Pancake G.M. - sorry
> Franz, but this is as exact as I can be...  I bug-sprayed the living (I
> think that it was "Black Flag" Sandy), and tried to dig up the "nest"
> which I could EASILY detect with a Ludlum (utilizing both 44-9 pancake and
> a 44-3 Scintillation probe) from above ground at waist height (3.5' [117
> cm])(probably some bremstrahlung?)  but had to give up as the P-32 (ants
> and waste) was "dispersing" in the wind as I dug (well, I!
> !
> 've always read that "the solution to pollution is dilution" [grin]). I
> finally gave up and buried the nest under a mound of dirt and just let it
> decay.  Try THAT at a power plant!!!  The ants probably dug themselves out
> the next day, but I carefully ignored them - sealed up their entrance
> point into the building and let them (and the waste) decay to background
> levels.  
> 
> 
> 
> 	Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)	
> 	SSC-SD
> 
> At 09:58 AM 10/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
> >Anyone have a large can of RAID :>
> >
> >Wednesday October 7 10:15 PM EDT 
> >
> >RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) _ Insects ranging from fruit flies to gnats 
> >and ants may be spreading radioactive contamination
> >among offices and shops at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
> >
> 
> Joel T. Baumbaugh, MPH, MHP
> baumbaug@nosc.mil
> Radiation Safety Officer
> SSC San Diego, CA
> 
> 
> 	NOTE:	The contents of this message have not been reviewed, nor
> approved by the Federal Government, the U.S. Navy, my bosses or my wife...
> 
> 
> 	
> 
>      "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and
> I'm not sure about the former."
> 
> 	A. Einstein
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