Re: Charlie Willis

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Though it wasn't the last time I saw Charlie, the one I'll never forget
was when we were making presentations at the Joint ACRS/ACNW
Subcommittee meeting on Low Level Radiation Health Effects in March 1996.

Charlie was participating as representative the Health Physics Society
to present the recently issued Position Statement on Risk. Following
that he stated, as reported in the transcript: 

"...it's clear to many of us that we are not seeing the predicted ill
effects at low doses, as has been pointed out to you.

"I personally came to this hormesis observation fairly late in the game.
 It wasn't until 1958 that I was working with the laboratory [Ed. Oak
Ridge] situation where we were doing experiments with below background
levels of radiation, taking the potassium-40 out and seeing what the
effects would be on the cellular level when we saw that the cells looked
good but they didn't function.  So we couldn't publish the results,
another ill effect of the paradigm about the linear hypothesis." 

I was preparing materials with this quote for the upcoming meeting of
the ACNW on the NCRP draft report when we received the email of his
passing. It struck me that perhaps there's a message there.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

LIPTONW@dteenergy.com wrote:
> 
> The last time I met Mr. Willis was when he visited Fermi 2, in 1994, as part
> of an "Augmented Inspection Team," after our turbine failure.  Although an
> AIT
> is never something a licensee wants, Mr. Willis did an excellent job, and
> made
> a difficult time much more bearable.  It was a privilege to work with him,
> and
> he will be sorely missed.
> 
> May his memory be a blessing.
> 
> The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
> It's not about dose, it's about trust.
> 
> Bill Lipton
> liptonw@dteenergy.com
> 
> You wrote:
> 
> >This appeared in today's Washington Post obituary section.  It is important
> to
> >remember that we all have a personal side to our lives.
> 
> >Charles A. Willis ...
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