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RE: www fallout (radiation, AIDS etc)
I do think, quite seriously, that along with the statement about the LNT
theory, the Health Physics Society might nip this one in the bud by issuing
a statement about the diseases (cancer) that we believe are related to
exposure to ionizing radiation, and the ones like AIDS where we are pretty
sure of the cause (rather than the correlation only) and know that it ISN'T
ionizing radiation. Re Rosalie Bertell's statement, it seems to me that if
a person suffers enough immune system damage from ionizing radiation to
weaken resistance to AIDS, a lot of other things are going to be wrong with
him or her first! Maybe the Society for Nuclear Medicine can help with this
-- we really should get rid of the notion that radiation causes whatever is
wrong with you.
Clearly only my own opinion.
Ruth F. Weiner
Sandia National Laboratories
MS 0718, POB 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
rfweine@sandia.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Björn Cedervall [mailto:bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 7:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: www fallout (radiation, AIDS etc)
>The connection between AIDS and ionizing radiation is so far-fetched >I
can't believe it
Radsafers: I also have some difficulty with these types of
correlations... With the risk of being both off-topic and boring you - I
made a simple search for radiation, AIDS etc (www fallout - each
character is like a "Bq") - there is no reason to repeat all strange
"information" out there but I give you a few glimpses below through
copy-pasted paragraphs.
You may want to add the last three links to your "favorites" (by backing
in the URL you'll find more illuminating interviews...). The bottom line
is, as so often, correlation vs. causality. And it is definitely not
funny - we have had newspaper articles on this level of entertainment -
covering millions of potential readers (our population is about 8.5
million).
bjorn_cedervall@hotmail.com
Stockholm, Sweden
Any opinions expressed above are those of mine and may not
necessarily coincide with those of others.
PS. Comment to the tick bearing deer on Long Island: People are in close
contact with the deer there feeding them anything from marshmellows and
carrots to pizzas. Great opportunities for various small living
creatures to be transferred from one mammalian species to the next.
Millstone also seems sort of far-fetched...
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Gould does not account for all the relevant data, does not address
other possible explanations, and does not deal with whether other
analyses support his conclusions. Similarly, he notes that there were
more AIDS-related deaths in May 1986 than in May 1985 and ascribes this
increase to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant; he does not
discuss whether the increase might have been due to a difference in the
number of diagnosed AIDS cases."
This paragraph comes from:
http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/0901/goodscience.html
(analysis of "claim-makers" - CMs - application of the scientific
method)
---------------
"The everyday releases of low-level radioactivity by nuclear power
plants has been found to cause several kinds of health damage including
premature births, congenital defects, infant mortality, mental
retardation, heart ailments, arthritis, diabetes, allergies, asthma,
cancer, genetic damage and chronic fatigue syndrome. It has been linked
to previously unknown infectious diseases, and the resurgence of old
ones by damaging the developing white blood cells originating in the
bone marrow and thus weakening the immune system.
Dr. Sternglass conjectures what could happen: "With countless thousands
of persons having a weaker and weaker immune system as the result of
increasing radioactive contamination of the air and food chain, an AIDS
mutation-like disease could become a new Black Plague. It's not
inconceivable that entire nations could be decimated."
--------------
Of particular interest is Lyme Disease which first appeared in 1975 near
the Millstone and Haddam Neck nuclear power plants in Connecticut. Dr.
Jay Gould in Deadly Deceit (1990, Four Walls Eight Windows) describes:
"In 1975 there were 59 cases of Lyme Disease recorded; in 1985 the
number increased to 863, mainly in the two counties of Middlesex and New
London, CT near the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant. Just as increases in
cancer may be linked to the huge radiation release from Millstone in
1975, so too may be the tick-borne Lyme Disease epidemic. The Lyme
Disease is carried by a spirochete that had not been as harmful to
humans prior to 1975. It is well known that radiation can cause
mutations in bacteria. The enormous 1975 Millstone radiation release may
have caused just such a mutation in the tick-borne spirochete."
-----------------
RB (interview): "The relationship between radiation and AIDS is another
one where we need more information. But it's very clear that radioactive
material incorporated into bone and lymph tissue undermines your ability
to fight infections. It's not at all coincidental, in my opinion, that
the people now suffering the AIDS epidemic are also the people born
between 1951 and 1963 when they did the above-ground weapon-testing in
Nevada, and they did the testing in the Pacific in the atmosphere. So
there probably is a connection to it but we don't know all the answers
to it. Nor are we asking the questions. "
----------------
``I spent 10 years in radiation data and emerged as the foremost expert
in the field,'' says Bertell.
//From http://www.ratical.org/radiation/RBanNun.html //
----------------
Other "references:"
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/HoLLR.html
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/inetSeries/overview.html
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