Guest columnist: Radiation spike press release incorrect, misleading
Heart of America Northwest struck again with its incorrect and misleading interpretation of a transitory EPA radiation measurement — recorded in Richland on May 5, 2016. State Rep. Gerry Pollet, for his advocacy organization Heart of America, warned in a May 10 press release that “this spike in radiation miles from the High-Level Nuclear Waste Tanks shows why workers near tanks are at risk from chemical vapors released along with radiation in sudden uncontrolled emissions… .”
The truth is, the radiation measurement didn’t come from any Hanford release of radiation or chemical vapors. EPA attributed the measurement spike to a fluctuation in natural background radiation from radon emanated by soil, rocks, and gravel ... most likely near the detector itself. The consequence of this small measurement is meaningless for public health.
Furthermore, Pollet assumed continuous exposure to the spike over an entire lifetime, multiplying a negligible radiation measurement by thousands of people, over many thousands of days, to obtain (in Pollet’s own words) “an outrageous 2,102 additional fatal cancers in every ten thousand exposed adults.”
That’s not science. This silly math by a Hanford agitator (without academic credentials in radiation physics) leading to nonsensical numbers clearly meant to scare the public. To the contrary, the Health Physics Society (comprising the world’s foremost authorities in radiation protection), caution against exactly this type of exaggerated cancer projection: Multiplication of small risk coefficients by large population numbers leads inevitably to unsupportable claims of cancer risk from ionizing radiation.
The Hanford Site is incredibly well monitored by highly capable scientists and technicians. Nothing claimed by Gerry Pollet and Heart of America Northwest is endorsed by health physicists who genuinely appreciate the science of radiation and understand its biological effects on man and animals, including beneficial uses of radiation to treat cancer.
Dr. Fisher is past president of the Health Physics Society, Research Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Washington State University, and a member of Committee 1 of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. He resides in Richland.
This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Guest columnist: Radiation spike press release incorrect, misleading."