Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!whuxl!whuts!orb
From: orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.sci,net.bio
Subject: Re: Plutonium
Message-ID: <754@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-May-86 17:40:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuts.754
Posted: Mon May  5 17:40:53 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 19:11:19 EDT
References: <358@drutx.UUCP> <1063@whuxl.UUCP> <2384@jhunix.UUCP> <708@whuts.UUCP> <885@harvard.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 48
Xref: lsuc net.politics:5224 net.sci:551 net.bio:202

> In article <708@whuts.UUCP> orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:
> >A few pounds of plutonium *IF* properly distributed in tiny specks to
> >everyone's lungs could indeed kill everyone on Earth.  Plutonium is
> >incredibly toxic stuff.  However it would be practically impossible
> >to distribute a mere few pounds of plutonium in such a way that it
> >*would* kill everyone on Earth.  My point there was to show the
> >incredible toxicity of plutonium which is awesome.
> 
> A few pounds of carbon, *IF* properly distributed in everyone's brain
> cells, could indeed kill everyone on Earth.  However, it would be
> practically impossible to distribute a mere few pounds of carbon in such
> a way that it *would* kill everyone on Earth...
> -- 
> gregregreg

1) As I understand it, carbon is one of the essential building blocks
   of all organic materials.  So how is it necessarily toxic?
   Indeed carbon is a major constituent of the brain cells of
   everyone reading this article if they are human.
   Why aren't we all dead?
   On the other hand do you have amazing new evidence that plutonium,
   which is an element not found naturally on Earth and manmade,
   has ever been
   a regular nonfatal constituent of organic material?
 
2) What is your evidence that carbon could *ever* be properly
   distributed in brain cells so as to be fatal?
   Michio Kuchko, a physicist at New York University, is my
   source for contending that plutonium particles are deadly.
 
3) It is quite plausible to suppose that plutonium particles
   can become airborne and inhaled into the lungs.
   how do you propose to get allegedly toxic carbon into
   brain cells so as to be fatal?  
   I have suggested that the hundred thousand pounds of
   plutonium in nuclear warheads shot down by a Start Wars
   system, would be likely to suffer at least some dispersion
   in the atmosphere as the nuclear warheads are annihilated.
   Since airborne plutonium particles are deadly in *very*
   small amounts, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that
   the dispersion of such particles could cause many deaths.
   What is your postulated mechanism for distributing supposedly
   fatal carbon into people's brain cells so as to be fatal?
 
I realize this is all inconsequential since your posting is
not meant to be any kind of serious analysis so there is
little reason to take it seriously.
    tim sevener   whuxn!orb