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Clintoon era or post 9-11 makes no difference to me, my contention was they would most probably be dead by now if they smuggled the stuff 5 years ago.

My contention was therefore, it's a fake claim, unless they actually did the smuggling fairly recently.

However, the information below indicates that they may have actually lived if the dose was low enough.

That would make your concern valid.

As an aside, during the "looting phase" immeadiately following the war, a number of nuclear waste containers were "appropriated" by Iraqis for use as water barrels, etc..

They were woefully un-informed as to what the radiation hazard symbol meant on those barrels, and other equipment.

There could be hundreds if not thousands of Iraqis that will end up with symptoms of radiation exposure.

RADIATION SYMPTOMS---NEAR TERM

Below 100 rems: No noticable effects

100-200 rems: Nausea approximately three hours after exposure

300 rems: Severe vomiting, loss of hair, hemorrhaging, increased susceptibility to infections due to reduction in white blood cells. Over 50% die within two months.

800 rems: Diarrhea and other problems with digestive organs, dehydration. Over 90% die within two weeks due to failure of circulatory system.

5000 rems: Severe convulsions and failure to the central nervous system. All cases die within two days.

After reading the above and if you had any of the above symptoms, how much radiation do you think you were really exposed to? (For additional material on symptoms of radiation sickness, see book by Rosalie Bertell, No Immediate Danger, pages 42--43.

LONG TERM---CHRONIC RADIATION SICKNESS WITH THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS

If you were to survive a lethal dose of 600---1000 rads, say, a nuclear power plant or a bomb blast, for instance, within four to five hours you would experience loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhea.

These symptoms would persist for several days, and in addition you could probably lose your hair and your fingernails might turn black. The tissues that generate your blood....the bone marrow, lymph nodes, thymus gland, and the spleen would be seriously affected.

Your white blood cell count may decrease from its normal level of 8000 cells per cubic millimeter to 50. Consequently, your body would lose its major defenses against all kinds of bacteria, and toxic infectious substances. This is medically known as the hematopoietic syndrome from radiation, and it alone is enough to almost certainly kill you. Usually, it is the means of death for whole body doses between 400---600 rads.

If you were unlucky enough to survive, you would almost certainly die within five to ten days as the result of another body breakdown---the erosion of the lining of your gut.

HOW THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM IS DAMAGED

The surface of our small intestines are lined with thousands of villi, fingerlike projections covered with special cells that extract nourishment from food. These cells do not reproduce, and are constantly worn away by food passing through. They must be replaced by new cells from the base of each villus.

A whole body dose of radiation between 600---1000 rads destroys the replacement process, and the villi are worn down to a point where the body is deprived of nourishment. In addition, holes soon appear in the villi and the harmless essential bacteria in our bowels---which aid in digesting food---escape into the blood stream, infecting our entire body...this is known as gastrointestinal syndrome from radiation.

A person who receives a dose of between 150---400 rads would probably survive and would experience nausea, vomiting and malaise within the first few days after exposure. Charles Panati and Michael Hudson, The Silent Intruder, Boston, 1981, pages 25-27.

Out of 16,500 policemen who were involved in the Chernobyl disaster, 57 suffered acute radiation sickness, 1,500 developed chronic respiratory or digestive problems and more than 4,000 showed other symptoms. 355 policemen received more than the maximum permissible emergency dose of 25 rem.

The high incidence of respiratory and digestive problems was probably caused less by total exposure than consumption of "hot particles" or radioactive dust and debris from the reactor core which causes local biological damage disproportionate to the total-body irradiation which is usually used in working out the permissible emergency exposure). Zhores Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl, New York, 1990, pages 48-49.

To speak of radiation sickness is unquestionably to imply servere forms of that illness. Milder forms often [go] undetected. The worst doses, internal or external, kill the victims immediately.

The less obvious lethal effects go on for weeks, months, and years. They are passed on to subsequent generations. Only a statistical estimate is possible and even that may never be made.

No one knows the percentage of chromosomal aberrations that occur in areas where the atomic industry is concentrated.