RE: INS Laundry - Related Topic

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Lavera, Ron wrote:

> I would like to add that there is another societal detriment that is not
> mentioned as a result of this type of legislation.  Every dollar that is
> spent dealing with meaningless values of radiation that may ( of may not )
> increase the risk of cancer, is DEFINITELY a reduction in the amount of
> money available for improving other infrastructure items that can reduce the
> mortality rate.  Some places I would like to see this money spent include
> hospital emergency rooms, prenatal care centers and educational improvements
> ( after all, you need to be able to get a job to be a "healthy worker" ).
> 
> It would be nice to see a list that stated the "risk" to the public from
> extraneous expenditures versus the risk from the projected exposure.

	--This discussion can be put on a quantitative basis by
considering the dollars spent  per life saved in various Societal
activities. There is a substantial literature on this, but my publications
on it are "Society's valuation of life saving in radiation protection and
other contexts", Health Physics 38:33ff;1980 and "Is reducing the hazards
of nuclear power cost effective?", Health Physics Newsletter November
1987, page 8. The subject is reviewed in my book "The Nuclear Energy
Option", available in many libraries and by inter-library loan in all
libraries.

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu



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