Re: Pu in groundwater thread

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

At 09:21 AM 1/7/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Drew Thatcher wrote:
>
>True, it should (key word) not take an HP to tell that femtocuries of Pu
>are not
>harmful.  But it will probably take an HP, and preferably one who has been
>trained
>in risk communication techniques, to explain that fact to a public that has
>been
>told that Pu is the most deadly substance on earth.

I think this will be the most important issue and the most difficult for
the health physics community to deal with. The public does not generally
understand that there is a difference between "detectable" and "harmful."
The "every photon is a killer" advocates have gotten enough press over the
years (and the idea has formed the basis of enough bad movies) that this
distinct mis-impression about the dangers of radioactivity may be
insurmountable. While I find it easy to see this problem, I find myself at
a complete loss to do anything about it - I'm afraid it's simply too large
to correct.

I envision some nationally televised press conference in which an educated,
accomplished and respected HP shows that the quantities of Pu found in this
study pale in comparison with the quantity of K-40 each of us carries
around in us all the time, and a whole new K-40 removal industry will be
spawned!

---------
Bob Flood
Dosimetry Group Leader
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(650) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu

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