Re: Big atomic rhubarb alarms small Canadian town

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

The incorporated tritium is small, but enough to stimulate rhubarb
growth? Consistent with biology studies. 

Thanks Sandy.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

Sandy Perle wrote:
> 
> Wednesday September 29, 10:13 am Eastern Time
> 
> CORRECTED - Big atomic rhubarb alarms small
> Canadian town
> 
> In September 28 Toronto story headlined ``Big atomic rhubarb
> alarms small Canadian town'' please read in eighth paragraph:
> ``Radiation is not being emitted because the product is
> encapsulated, said company vice-president Stephane Levesque.''
> (Corrects to product from plant, making it clear that the product is
> encapsulated, not the plant.)
> 
> A corrected repeat follows.
> 
> TORONTO, Sept. 28 (Reuters) - A small Ontario town is in an
> uproar over the big rhubarb stalks that grow near a plant that uses
> radioactive waste, but officials said on Tuesday the atomic
> vegetables are safe enough for pies or jam.
> 
> The atomic rhubarb, which is growing just southeast of a glow-in-
> the-dark sign factory in the town of Pembroke, near Ottawa,
> contains about 1,000 times the radioactive tritium ordinarily found
> in the area's rainwater.
> 
> That alarms residents living close to the plant, which is owned by
> SRB Technologies (Canada) Inc.
> 
> ``We are against any involuntary exposure to radiation,'' said Lynn
> Jones, president of a 200-member citizens' group that collected
> samples for testing.
> 
> ``We're concerned because high levels of radioactivity are very
> dangerous to humans.''
> 
> But the Atomic Energy Control Board -- Canada's nuclear safety
> agency -- has decided the patch of unusually large rhubarb is
> not hazardous and can still be used to bake a pie or make
> preserves, said Sunni Locatelli, a board spokesperson.
> 
> ``We're naturally exposed to radioactivity everyday,'' said Locatelli.
> ``High doses of of radioactivity can cause genetic defects and
> cancer, but at these levels there are no dangers.''
> 
> The plant manufactures lights powered by the radioactive isotopes
> of hydrogen. Radiation is not being emitted because the product is
> encapsulated, said company vice-president Stephane Levesque.
> 
> The company's assurances have yet to persuade Robert Drummie,
> the manager of a University of Waterloo, Ontario, laboratory that
> conducted tritium tests on the rhubarb this summer.
> 
> He found the rhubarb had 2,000 becquerels (a unit of radioactivity)
> per liter of tritium - which is about 100 times more than an average
> garden rhubarb.
> 
> ------------------------
> Sandy Perle
> E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
> Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
> 
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