RE: Paul Harvey about plutonium

[Robert_A_Jones@RL.gov]

Here is the story:

Monday August 9,  5:15 AM ET 
British Scientists Inhale Plutonium 'Without Risk'
LONDON (Reuters) - Two British scientists who inhaled plutonium in an
experiment to mimic the effects of a nuclear war have suffered no side
effects, officials said Monday. 
Britain's Atomic Energy Authority said the research into the effects of
plutonium, until now considered a grave danger to mankind, would help
people working in the nuclear industry. 
``Tests using injections and inhalation have been going on for many
years. They are carried out under very strict guidelines from the
government,'' said Atomic Energy Authority spokesman Andrew Mann, 
``There are no real risks involved in these tests,'' he told Reuters.
``Everyone that took part in this test is healthy.'' One of the
scientists involved, Eric Voice, 73, who inhaled plutonium 18 months
ago, said fears that plutonium was a danger to people were unfounded. 
Voice, a nuclear scientist, said he and an unnamed colleague in his 60s
had been well since absorbing a minuscule quantity of plutonium. 
Voice told the Guardian newspaper that ignorance of how plutonium
affected the human metabolism was a gap that medical science needed to
fill. 
``There will in the future be a nuclear war or an accident and we should
know how it is going to affect us,'' he said. 
``Because of the work already done we now know a great deal about what
plutonium does to the bloodstream, and where it goes. The vital link
we're now making is how it gets into the blood in the first place,''
Voice said. 
Voice believes that plutonium has never harmed a human being, except
when the United States dropped its atomic bombs on Japan to end World
War Two. 
Voice was one of 12 volunteers who were given plutonium between 1992 and
1998. Results of the study will be published next year. 
Copyright © 1996-1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.


Robert A. Jones			Robert_A_Jones@rl.gov
<mailto:Robert_A_Jones@rl.gov> 
Health Physicist 			phone: (509)376-8528
PFP Radiological Control 		fax: (509)373-4274
Hanford, WA				Hanford Pager: 85-6559 


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