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Re: www fallout (radiation, AIDS etc)
Having taken a quick look through some of the web sites Bjorn
listed (I had neither the time nor the stomach for an extended
perusal), something jumped out at me; "in December 1989,
the government sponsored National Academy of Sciences stated
in a report titled Biological Effects of Radiation that there was no
safe level of radiation."
Until/unless hormesis is conclusively demonstrated in human
beings, this statment will remain strictly accurate. However, as
a statement intended for public consumption, it is somewhat
misleading. When making general statments such as this, we
have to be conservative to avoid the perception that we are sugar
coating the truth. However, it is possible to go too far. A better
phrasing might be something like "Just as there is no safe
distance to walk down the street, there is no absolutely safe
level of radiation exposure. However, unavoidable risks in eveyday
life tremendously outweigh the risks of continuous exposure below
approximately 1 rem per year" (I picked one rem as a rough
estimate of the higher range background exposure levels found in
various areas of the US or the world. The exact number would
require more deliberation than I've given it right now, but would be
a lot closer to 1 than 0.1).
The point? Let's be careful not to make it too easy for extremists
to use our own words against us.
At 08:32 AM 2/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>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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___________________________________________________________
Philip Hypes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safegaurds Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)
(505) 667-1556 phypes@lanl.gov
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