Letter to the Tooth Fairy

[Mike Bohan <mike.bohan@yale.edu>]

Hoy Hoy RadSafers:

I just wrote this letter and e-mailed it off to my local newspaper.  Let's see
your letters to the "Tooth Fairy".

Dear Editors,

I would like to briefly comment on the news story by Daniel Jones, published
on March 9, 1999 in the Hartford Courant.  That story concerned Alex Baldwin's
effort to collect baby's teeth to measure their Strontium-90 levels.  

This story is pure anti-radiation phobic propaganda.  The levels of
Strontium-90 in the environment are dwarfed by the natural radiation sources
that have been there since time immemorial.  Whatever contribution they make
to the radiation received by children in Connecticut or elsewhere, it
constitutes much less than 1% of the natural radiation background.  

If radiation exposure is as potent as Mr. Baldwin fears, then he has to go no
further than the "Mile High City", Denver, Colorado.  People and children in
the Denver area receive more than twice the radiation than the average U.S.
population.  This is primarily due to the higher cosmic radiation levels
present at higher altitudes.  However, the cancer rates in Denver are lower
than the U.S. average.  If radiation and cancer are as closely linked as Mr.
Baldwin and his group suggests, surely we would see the opposite.

People of Connecticut, save your baby's teeth for the real tooth fairy.  Don't
fall for this feeble attempt to use our children in their propaganda machine.

Sincerely,

Mike Bohan
Radiation Safety Officer
Yale-New Haven Hospital
Radiological Physics
20 York St. - WWW 204
New Haven, CT   06504
mike.bohan@yale.edu
TEL (203)688-2950
FAX (203)737-4252

P.S. - These are my own thoughts and words and are not to be attributed as the
official position of Yale-New Haven Hospital  

Regards,

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Michael J. Bohan, RSO   |  e-mail: mike.bohan@yale.edu
Yale-New Haven Hospital |    Tele: (203) 688-2950
Radiological Physics    |     FAX: (203) 737-4252
20 York St. - WWW 204   |    As usual, everything I say may be plausibly
New Haven, CT    06504  |    denied at my employer's convenience ...
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