Re: NY Times Editorial on Marie Curie -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

Dr. Akira Ito,

My recommendation is to write to the NY Times.  Do not be disappointed if/when
they do not publish your letter, but be glad that you tried to interject some
intelligence into the discussion.

As for the cause of death of Mme. Curie, we do not know but the odds are that
exposure to ionizing radiation was NOT the cause of her death.  Her doctors said
the cause of her death (at 66 years of age) was pernicious anemia, a non-radiogenic
affliction.  My medical colleagues tell me that this problem with vitamin B-12 was
well known and should not have been confused with leukemia, solid cancer or
aplastic anemia.  Furthermore, according to the RERF data, only about eight
percent of the most highly exposed of the A bomb survivors (doses greater than 2
Gy) had died of radiogenic cancer by 1990, 45 years after the exposure.  Mme.
Curie lived less than 20 years after her principal exposure,  i.e. during World War
I.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.gov  
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