Re: NY Times Editorial on Marie Curie

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/25/98 1:42:46 AM !!!First Boot!!!, AIto@jfcr.or.jp
writes:

<< Mme Curie's internal dose due to radium has recently found to be much
 less than the maximum accepted concentration to the public. In 1995, Mme
 Curie's coffin was moved to Pantheon to be given France's highest honour.
 At that time, French Office of Ionization Radiation Control (ORPI) had
 measured radon concentration in her coffin. It was 360 Bq/m3 while the
 maximum accepted public concentration is 7000 Bq/m3. See further details
 in the article entitled "X-rays, not radium, may have killed Curie", 
 Nature, Vol. 377, 14 September 1995 >>

I don't understand the logic of  the above comparison. What does the
concentration of radon in the air of Mme. Curie's coffin derived in part from
her Ra-226 body burden have to do with the  "maximum accepted public
concentration" [of Rn-222 in air] being stated as 7000 Bq/m3?  Research going
back many decades has documented that radon is exhaled in the breath of a
living being [or released from a body after death] in some relationship to
internal deposition, which could be used to back calculate the Ra-226 body
burden. I haven't seen the the reference cited above, but will do so shortly,
and the article may address the point I raise.

However, it seems that the comment above related to the narrow point  of body
burden vs. public ambient airborne radon exposure standards from overall
environmental sources of radon is mixing apples with oranges in regard to the
issue of what was the level of Mme. Curie's radium body burden and dose, and
if her radium body burden contributed in any way to her death.

Stewart Farber
Director - Radium Experiment Assessment Project
19 Stuart St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860

Phone/FAX: (401) 727-4947  E-mail: radproject@usa.net

            Web address: http://www.delphi.com/carsreap

The Radium Experiment Assessment Project is a project of the Center for Atomic
Radiation Studies, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization


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