RE: Gould's Tooth Fairy Project (Link to article)

["Heinmiller, Bruce" <heinmillerb@aecl.ca>]

Or in foods that a pregnant or lactating woman may like.  Quoting from
Eisenbud, 1997:  "The amount of Sr-90 contributed to the diet by grains is
influenced by milling practices.  In the United States, Canada, and the
United Kingdom, the Sr-90:Ca ratio in flour has been approximately one-third
to one-half of that in the whole grain and one-quarter of that in bran
(UNSCEAR 1962).  Milling reduces the ratio in rice grain to one-fifth to
one-tenth of the value in whole rice."  Also quoting Eisenbud, 1997:
"Strontium-90 deposition was far from uniform during the period of maximum
fallout...".

Question:  The primary pathway of Sr to humans is through food - especially
milk.  The Sr isotope most related specifically to nuclear power plant
operations is Sr-89.  While you wouldn't expect to see this in teeth, I
believe you would expect to see it in milk sourced near nuclear power
plants, if the source of Sr was the power plant.  I believe Millstone, for
example, (one of the power plants cited in the Tooth Fairy Project) has
reported not detecting Sr-89 in milk sourced around Millstone, but my source
of this information is indirect.  Can anyone verify this?

Bruce Heinmiller CHP
heinmillerb@aecl.ca

> ----------
> From: 	Bob Flood[SMTP:bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	Thursday, November 04, 1999 11:30 AM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	RE: Gould's Tooth Fairy Project (Link to article)
> 
> At 09:45 AM 11/4/1999 -0600, you wrote:
> >Unfortunately, there is no one associated with the Tooth Fairy Project
> that
> >has an understanding of environmental transport.
> 
> There is no doubt that the way food is processed and prepared in this
> country has changed dramatically in the last 40 years, and I'd be willing
> to wager up to a nickel that the Tooth Fairy Project hasn't examined
> whether there are processes now in use that tend to concentrate chemicals
> such as Strontium in foods that children like. Ignoring such things as
> transport mechanisms and food chain characteristics and jumping straight
> to
> assigning blame to nuclear power plants seems a fair demonstration to the
> preconceived notions the project started with. They had the answer before
> they started; they are now simply deriving the question.
> 
> ===================================
> Bob Flood
> Dosimetry Group Leader
> Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> (650) 926-3793
> bflood@slac.stanford.edu
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