Re: Paul Harvey about plutonium

["Nathan Pell" <npell@rsoinc.com>]

I was wondering if any one saw the story in the Washington Post about the
nuclear plant in Ky? It was a good read, and deals with Plutonium.

Nathan A. Pell
Health Physicist
RSO, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: BergerIEM@aol.com <BergerIEM@aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Monday, August 09, 1999 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: Paul Harvey about plutonium


>Otto:
>
>Here is an article I came across.  I have the same questions as you.
>
>Carol Berger
>Integrated Environmental Management, Inc.
>(301) 762-0502
>CDBerger@IEM-Inc.com
>-------------------------------------------
>August 9, 1999
>Reuters
>British Scientists Inhale Plutonium "without Risk"
>
>Two British scientists who inhaled plutonium in an experiment to mimic the
>effects of a nuclear war have suffered no side effects, officials said on
>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.
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