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RE: Tooth Fairy Project Presenting Findings at Ottawa
I believe that the purpose of the STAR tooth fairy program was to use the
information to target operating facilities such as Brookhaven National Labs
and Millstone. Please correct me if I'm mistaken in my assumption.
I am curious as to what level of peer review this report was subjected.
... mine and mine alone ...
Ron LaVera
Lavera.r@nypa.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Franz Schoenhofer [mailto:schoenho@via.at]
Sent: Monday, July 26, 1999 4:58 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: Tooth Fairy Project Presenting Findings
at Ottawa
At 10:32 26.07.1999 -0500, you wrote:
>I realize I am preaching to the choir here, but why is it
that people
>remember that the US and USSR stoped atmospheric testing,
but always
>forget to remember the french and chinese tests, not to
mention
>Chernobyl as possible sources for Sr (if any) in baby
teeth. It just
>shows how disingenuous some of these people are, hoping
that the general
>public has a short memory even about their own doom-saying
>pronouncements,
>
>Jim Willison, CHP
>willisonj@ttnus.com
----------------------------
Sorry, I totally disagree with your statement - in several
aspects. First,
the "honour" of contaminating the world and there especially
the Northern
hemisphere with fission products from atmospheric nuclear
tests goes
without doubt to the USA and the former Sovjetunion. The
contribution of
the Chinese atmospheric tests is negligible. Nearly all of
the French
nuclear tests have been performed in the Southern hemisphere
and their
yield has been negligible as well even in the Southern
hemisphere with
respect to the contamination caused by the USA and the
Sovjetunion. Also
the contamination originating from the atmospheric tests of
Great Britain
(mostly in the Southern hemisphere) which you forgot to
mention, are
negligible. There is enough reliable scientific literature
available on
this matter.
There is as well reliable literature available on the
consequences of
Chernobyl. Not only was the impact restricted to Europe and
the integrated
contamination with Cs-137 was in almost all areas much lower
than during
the period of atmospheric nuclear tests, but the Sr-90
releases were only
of importance in the vicinity of the power plant and not in
whole Europe,
not to talk about distant countries like the US.
Therefore it is justified to blame elevated concentrations
of Sr-90 in baby
teeth to the atmospheric nuclear tests of the USA and
Sovjetunion - but
only during the late 50's up to the mid-60's. The
atmospheric contamination
is well known and there exist in Europe several
comprehensive studies on
Sr-90 in baby-teeth, which show the general pattern of Sr-90
concentration
like it was found in milk, or the C-14 and tritium patterns
found in
aerosols and wine, and other fission products in various
media.
I have some time ago commented on RADSAFE on the "baby tooth
project" in an
extremely negative way. I have not changed my opinion. The
Sr-90 content
will depend on the nutrition of the mother and even to some
extent on the
Sr-90 content of her skeleton - if she breast-feeds the baby
- or on the
baby formulas fed to the baby. Both the nutrition of the
mother and the
baby formulas will not be representative of local food - it
might come from
everywhere in the world. Any connection to the local
environment and any
nuclear power plant in the vicinity has therefore to be
excluded.
What I dislike about your comment - please correct me, if I
am wrong - is
that by trying to blame Sr-90 contamination to other
"nuclear powers" to
share, you indirectly leave open that the actual
environmental
contamination by Sr-90 could be a cause of health problems.
I categorically
refuse such speculations.
Franz
Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at
Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schönhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Department of Radiochemistry
Kinderspitalg. 15
A-1095 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-40 490 27820
e-mail: schoenhofer@baluf.via.at
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