Posted on 11/24/2007 7:30:58 PM PST by Flavius
A number of studies conducted at the sites of some of the worst radiation incidents in history have concluded that the danger from radiation isn't as great as was previously believed.
Deaths from radiation incidents including the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in WW2 and Russian nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl were in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. The risk of genetic deformity was also lower than expected.
(Excerpt) Read more at shortnews.com ...
I quit buying and chewing Chinese made toys, thank you.
Both
Btw, DU is less than half as radioactive as natural uranium, which, in turn, is quite safe to handle (though not to inhale).
His father was one of the Army personnel that was subjected to a nuclear test blast. His father suffered all sorts of health problems later in life.
(I don't remember the details, that job being about twenty-five years ago.)
If I understand correctly, DU radiates only alpha particles, which don't even penetrate skin or clothes. Beta and gamma ray emitters are much more dangerous to handle, and nuclear explosions and reactors can emit neutrons that can make ordinary elements radioactive.
There were several people who were are contemporaries, and half a generation older who were born with cleft palates. Our town seemed to have a lot of “different” maladies.
In my own graduating class, we’ve lost a total of 19 people, so far, most to various cancers.
I’ll never be convinced that Downwinders are not “different.” We’ve suffered. Period.
Turns out that the houses were built from waste material from the local cobalt mine that still had excessive residual radiation.
Why am I not surprised by that?
I don’t think our parents even knew the dangers of being Downwinders. I think only select government officials knew, and the school board was only given enough information to distribute the iodine tablets. (They were truly nasty things, too, and tasted nothing like chocolate.)
The “nurses” that were there to oversee the distribution looked stern and formidable. I doubt they were County Health Nurses. Most likely, Feds.
“Not the tank armor.”
I mean the enemy tank armor. If they spend a million dollars in a publicity campaign to make us stop using it, demoralize the troops, and turn the citizens against the government, it’s cheaper than re-engineering their tank armor.
The impact point of the sabot round has U vapor and dust, not the launch point.
“And do you remember when they had fluoroscopes in shoe stores?”
I’ve heard of them, and seen one in a museum.
It was an unfiltered x-ray tube, too, with loads of low energy photons.
In the 30’s someone was selling a ceramic cylinder loaded with thorium, you were supposed to put it in your drinking water pitcher to “energize” the water and make you healthy!
Flying in mid-latitudes over 23K feet can give you about .3 mR/hour in non-flare conditions. During a solar flare it goes up, and it goes up with altitude and latitude. In most places, the normal ground level background is 20 micro-R, so 300 uR is significant.
Above 34K feet, there are loads of neutrons, and some mesons too, from cosmic ray primary collisions. Now that memory cells and processor cells are so small, there is work being done to investigate “neutron single-event upset”, where high altitude neutrons mes up the function of some electronics.
In the EU, pilots and attendants are considered to be radiation workers and are given dosimeter badges.
And we are told that it’s the baggage x-ray that ruins your film you shot in Paris, then flew home on a polar route!
Birth defects have existed since the dawn of humanity. The main health result of Chernobyl has been a grim, fatalistic outlook on life.
The influence of the post-Chernobyl fallout on birth defects and abortion rates in Austria.
RESULTS: No significant changes in the incidence of birth defects, abortion rate, or counseling rate at pregnancy termination clinics were observed.
It would be similar if they used tungsten instead of uranium.
The problem is the accident didn’t occur in Austria. It occured in the Ukraine. Belarus is said to have been exposed to 70% of the radiation. Russia was also heavily radiated. The radiation released was estimated to be 200 times the combined radiation release of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan. The rate of thyroid cancer Gomel Oblast, Belarus has increased two hundred fold for children under 15 year old. That’s damning evidence of the dangers of radiation since healthy 15 year olds don’t develop cancer unless there is an external cause. One thing should be noted, though, Chernobyl didn’t have a containment structure and Chernobyl’s design was unstable to begin with, requiring no heavy water and graphite for moderation. They didn’t even have to use enriched urainium. So for those who are pushing nuclear power, I say fine. With the right configuration, we might never see an accident again. But as far as underestimating radiation exposure, I think that’s just stupid.
You are correct, DU sluggs are and alpha emitter. We wore gloves, dust masks and had the DR guys run a counter over us at the end of the day - worst day - we had to take a hose to our uniforms. Within 30 min we were bone dry - and feeling better, it had been kinda hot that day.
The targets (T55s) were also secondary alpha emitters as IIRC, they had been used in some of the open air testing from back in the day.
FWIW, the DU slugs completely ripped the Soviet era armor to shreds.
Used to put my feet in them and watch my toes wiggle -- just unshielded x-ray machines...
“The rate of thyroid cancer Gomel Oblast, Belarus has increased two hundred fold for children under 15 year old.”
That’s interesting- is it the cesium that is suspected, or some other isotope?
Do you have a link or citation for the source? I’d like to read it.
“But as far as underestimating radiation exposure, I think that’s just stupid.”
Look up the BIER reports, they have the best estimates so far of risk vs dose.
In the Ukraine, however, there's a lot of other possible causes of birth defects:
Pollutants by virtually unregulated industrial sources violate air quality regulations in at least 18 of 52 Ukrainian cities.2 Raw waste water on the order of 1 million cubic meters is dumped into the environment annually. Heavy industries associated with ore processing, chemical works, and the military, produced and continue to produce vast amounts of waste which are dumped untreated in landfills. ... Deteriorated water supplies, lack of access to vitamins, iodized salt and other micro-nutrients such as folic acid, which are essential for normal embryonal development, compound public awareness of reproductive risks in Ukraine.
So are they going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a slightly-elevated background radiation problem, while industrial pollution goes on unabated? The Chisso Corporation in Minimata Japan had absolutely nothing to do with radioactive elements from 1925 onward.
I can remember a scientist saying you could eat either urainium or plutonium and no get sick, it is just when it is highly refined that it becomes dangerous.
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