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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re:Expertise:Nuclear War Casualties
Message-ID: <328@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Nov-84 11:00:32 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxl.328
Posted: Mon Nov  5 11:00:32 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Nov-84 06:41:21 EST
References: <1133@drusd.UUCP> <2082@randvax.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs
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> ----------
> >>..................................  I have talked to Teller about
> >>this myself, and he mentioned that ..............................
> >>					Milo
> 
> >Aw! Come on, Milo!  These are all people with a vested interest in escalating
> >the balance-of-terror.  Their paychecks depend on maintaining the status quo.
> >
> >- Phil Lavette
> 
> 
>     Of all the things that disgust me about the nuclear arms "debate" I
>     think this unwillingness to concede expertise is the most sickening.
>     Sure, Phil, and doctors make their money off disease, which is why they
>     poison water supplies and release starved plague-carrying rats in the
>     midst of large crowds...and without crime there'd be no cops, so
>     policemen have a "vested interest" in seeing more and more murder and
>     mayhem in our streets...ditto for attorneys...
> 						--- das

Precisely-people with expertise in given areas should be given some
consideration.  That is why I think we should ignore the advice of people
like Teller who may have lots of expertise on the physics of the bomb but
no expertise on the biological effects of nuclear weapons or radioactivity.
Please consider the history of the health and biological effects of atomic
bombs and what the AEC told Americans vs. what some biologists discovered.
Barry Commoner is a biologist.  In the "Closing Circle" Commoner described
the history of attempts to downplay the deleterious effects of nuclear weapons.
1)the AEC early in the 50's announced that "fallout is no problem, it just
goes into the atmosphere and should circle there indefinitely".
  This myth was punctured when the Japanese fishing boat, "the Lucky Dragon"
happened within 150 miles of an atomic test and its occupants came down with
radiation sickness and burns.  Guess what the cause was? Radioactive fallout,
the kind that would circle in the atmosphere "indefinitely".
2)Barry Commoner and other biologists warned that atomic tests were dispersing
dangerous radioisotopes into the environment and this posed a threat to food
chains by being passed up the food chain.  A key radioisotope posing a danger
biologists warned was strontium-90.  The AEC and people like Teller told the
American people- "don't worry, strontium-90 is no problem.  The radiation
only penetrates half an inch- it can't possibly hurt you!"
Barry Commoner and other biologists then conducted a study of infant's teeth
and mother's milk in St. Louis (downwind from atomic tests in Nevada).
They discovered that, indeed, both had signicant levels of strontium-90
that had displaced calcium and been transmitted up the food chain from grass
to cows milk to human infants and mother's milk.  Now we ALL have strontium-90
in our bones--and penetrating radiation of only half an inch from within our
own bones IS quite dangerous.
Despite scientists evidence that atmospheric testing was dangerous many
arms supporters opposed any nuclear test ban.  Finally however in 1963
Kennedy achieved a Limited Test Ban Treaty with the Soviets which has
never been broken.  Needless to say, Ronald Reagan opposed that treaty.
3)Now we have the Physicians for Social Responsibility, doctors who should
know better than anyone the health effects of the singular catastrophe
that a nuclear war would be, warning that the only way to avoid massive
casualties from Nuclear War is to prevent one and stop the arms race.
I happen to think that Doctors and biologists are far more qualified to
judge the health effects of Nuclear War than people who know how much
bang you can get with given weapons but know nothing about biology.
Let's listen to the experts-let's stop the arms race NOW!
Tim Sevener whuxl!orb