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From: wdm@ecn-pc.UUCP (Tex)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: It could have been worse.
Message-ID: <487@ecn-pc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Feb-86 12:42:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ecn-pc.487
Posted: Tue Feb 25 12:42:08 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 04:49:25 EST
References: <860222195435.678780@HI-MULTICS.ARPA>
Reply-To: wdm@ecn-pc.UUCP (Tex)
Organization: Cybotech Product Development Laboratory
Lines: 38

And now, the latest installment in Plutonium Hysteria:

In article <860222195435.678780@HI-MULTICS.ARPA> Slocum@HI-MULTICS.ARPA writes:
>Plutonium is widely felt to be the most poisonous substance anywhere,
>even if you disregard the radioactivity.  

    The MOST POISONOUS substance anywhere.  Do you have any references?

>It has been said that less
>than a pound spread thinly enough could kill every human being.

   Yes, but has it been said by anyone who knows what they are talking
   about?

>
>Now, imagine the shuttle exploding with this cargo.  Ten miles up.
>Practically maximum possible dispersion.

   Except for the fact that it would have probably remained intact and sank to
   the bottom of the Atlantic, thereby posing very little danger to anyone.

>In the very least, several thousand, perhaps several hundred thousand
>people would develop cancer and plutonium poisoning.

   Yes, I guess that is why Western North America is practically devoid of
   human population - those damn bomb test killed millions.

>In the shuttle tragedy, we lost seven lives, and Challenger.  It could
>have been much worse.

   Had the Galileo been aboard, the biggest loss (next to the crew, of course),
   would have been the Galileo, period.  Not even the most hysterical expert
   predicts that several thousand people would have died.  

   I never believed so many people read the National Enquirer and "news"papers
   of that sort, but that is the only place I can think of where so many people
   are getting these ideas.