Gofman letter -Reply

[Michael S Ford <MFORD@pantex.com>]

Gofman wrote in part: "... By any reasonable standard of biomedical
proof, there is no safe dose..."

Why focus on cellular effects when we have an ongoing study
population that completely explodes the above myth?

When Gofman says "there is no safe dose", that means that anyone
receiving a plutonium uptake (down to one atom) would eventually
develop some type of radiogenic cancer.

The paper by Voelz, et al in HPJ V. 73 No. 4 (1997), "Fifty years of
plutonium exposure to the Manhattan Project plutonium workers: an
update," blows Gofman's "no safe dose" blather out of the water.

The individual with the highest deposition (3180 Bq) at the end of
1994 was 86 years old and exhibited the medical profile one would
expect of a person that age ( e.g., hearing loss, benign prostatic
hypertrophy).  9 of the 10 individuals with the highest doses were
still alive and well at the end of the '94 study (minimum 1160 Bq, ED
= 3.0 Sv).

The authors conclude with the following statement:

"The data on these 26 plutonium exposed workers have consistently
indicated over the 50-y followup period that the mortality rates for all
causes of death and for all cancers are not elevated compared with
that of U.S. white males and unexposed Los Alamos workers with
comparable hire dates.  This finding differs from some popular
misconceptions that large health risks occur with any exposure to
plutonium.  ..."

My own personal/non-corporate thoughts,
v/r
Michael
mford@pantex.com
TX Radiation Advisory Board
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