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From: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: plutonium
Message-ID: <317@meccts.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 00:33:57 EST
Article-I.D.: meccts.317
Posted: Fri Mar  7 00:33:57 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Mar-86 00:13:54 EST
References: <860225173815.083415@HI-MULTICS.ARPA> <8602271640.AA13501@pc.Purdue.EDU>
Reply-To: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein)
Organization: MECC Technical Services, St.Paul, MN
Lines: 31
Summary: 

In article <860225173815.083415@HI-MULTICS.ARPA> you write:
>
>    Plutonium is an extremely dangerous poison; it collects
>    in the bones and interferes with the production of white
>    blood cells.
>
>                     New Columbia Encyclopedia
>
>Just thought you might like some evidence to back up what I said.
>
>Brett Slocum Slocum@HI-MULTICS

During the Manhatten Project, 26 workers absorbed large doses of 
plutonium.  These 26 have subsequently been studied since then to 
determine cancer incidence and longivity.  Los Alamos published their
last update on the study about 6 months ago.  A third man has now died
of heart disease, one had previously died in a car crash and one had
died of a heart attack.  None have as yet developed cancers, and the
number of deaths is less than half of the expected number for men of
that age.

The point here is that plutonium is not magic nor evil.  It is simply
one of many substances that should be handled with care.  All of the 
heavy metals are toxic and some are much more dangerous then
plutonium.  (Radium is about 4 times as dangerous as plutonium.)
-- 

Michael V. Stein
Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation - Technical Services

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