Radiation, asbestos overblown fears.

GeorgeGaskill Wrote:
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> The ore had really low concentrations of radium.
> The uranium emissions are alpha particles which do
> not penetrate the skin. Not much to worry about,
> especially if you spend much time flying.

Or if you live in Leadville where the Cosmic Rays will put you over the safe dosage most years. Or some other parts of the Rockies where there's enough emitted from the granite (or even from coal) in the ground to peg yer dosimeter. Life is dangerous and nobody gets out alive ya know. I had a chem prof at WSC in Gunnison who used to love freaking out freshmen with things like that (Dr. Laplante, although I may me misspelling his name, his degree was in nuclear chem.) He used to propose building a reactor in Gunnison and running the water under the streets to melt off the snow/ice in winter, just to watch the "no nukes" (ca 1981-3) students go ape.

As to asbestos, classic panic reaction. Didn't differentiate between different types of asbestos, ripped out bunches in buildings, admittedly of the dangerous kind, that would have been safer to leave undisturbed. Chicken Little ruled the day.

Somewhere in "Little Engines & Big Men" Lathrop recalls how great it was when they switched to asbestos for the boiler lagging (from oak) since there wasn't the constant trickle of wood smoke into the cab anymore.

Hank



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2020 11:52AM by hank.