Gov Irradiates Park Visitors

[Dale00]

Your Gov at work! Been to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center?
Class actions suits??? Nah- sovereign immunity

For nearly two decades at the Grand Canyon, tourists, employees, and children on tours passed by three paint buckets stored in the National Park's museum collection building, unaware that they were being exposed to radiation.

Although federal officials learned last year that the 5-gallon containers were brimming with uranium ore, then removed the radioactive specimens, the park's safety director alleges nothing was done to warn park workers or the public that they might have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.

In a rogue email sent to all Park Service employees on Feb. 4, Elston "Swede" Stephenson — the safety, health and wellness manager — described the alleged cover-up as "a top management failure" and warned of possible health consequences.

"If you were in the Museum Collections Building (2C) between the year 2000 and June 18, 2018, you were 'exposed' to uranium by OSHA's definition," Stephenson wrote. "The radiation readings, at first blush, exceeds (sic) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's safe limits. … Identifying who was exposed, and your exposure level, gets tricky and is our next important task."

In a Feb. 11 email to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, Stephenson said he had repeatedly asked National Park executives to inform the public, only to get stonewalled.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...sed-radiation-safety-manager-says/2876435002/

 

[RETOKSQUID]

Well that's no bueno!

 

[SMS]

Nothing a little radaway won’t cure..

 

[mr ed]

It was curing the cancers of park visitors so they had to get rid of it.

 

[Dale00]

Imagine if your child went to one of the workshops or shows held within a few feet of those radiation sources.....
"Oops sorry about that"
Hopefully it was not that strong a level radiation....once again the science is lacking in the reporting.

 

[dennishoddy]

Imagine if your child went to one of the workshops or shows held within a few feet of those radiation sources.....
"Oops sorry about that"
Hopefully it was not that strong a level radiation....once again the science is lacking in the reporting.

Stolen from the internet for general information service:
How much radiation is dangerous?

Radiation dosage can measured in various ways. Some of the units used are Grays, Sieverts, rems, and rads. They are used in a similar way, but 0.1 rad is equivalent to 100 Gray.

• Below 30 rads: Mild symptoms will occur in the blood
• From 30 to 200 rads: The person may become ill.
• From 200 to 1,000 rads: The person may become seriously ill.
• Over 1,000 rads: This will be fatal.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), radiation sickness, or acute radiation syndrome (ARS) is diagnosed when:

• A person receives over 70 rads from a source outside their body
• The dose affects the whole body, or most of it, and is able to penetrate to the internal organs
• The dose is received in a short time, usually within minutes

A person who experiences an atomic explosion will receive two doses of radiation, one during the explosion, and another from fallout, when radioactive particles float down after the explosion.


Symptoms
Radiation sickness can be acute, happening soon after exposure, or chronic, where symptoms appear over time or after some time, possibly years later.

The signs and symptoms of acute radiation poisoning are:

• vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea
• loss of appetite
• malaise, or feeling unwell
• headache
• rapid heartbeat

Symptoms depend on the dose, and whether it is a single dose or repeated.

A dose of as low as 30 rads can lead to:

• loss of white blood cells
• nausea and vomiting
• headaches

A dose of 300 rads dose may result in:

• temporary hair loss
• damage to nerve cells
• damage to the cells that line the digestive tract

Stages of radiation sickness
Symptoms of severe radiation poisoning will normally go through four stages.

Prodomal stage: Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, lasting from a few minutes to several days

Latent stage: Symptoms seem to disappear, and the person appears to recover

Overt stage: Depending on the type of exposure, this can involve problems with the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, hematopoietic, and central nervous system (CNS)


Recovery or death: There may be a slow recovery, or the poisoning will be fatal.

Hematopoietic stem cells, or bone marrow cells, are the cells that all other blood cells derive from.

Different doses, different effects
The risk of illness depends on the dose. Very low doses of radiation are all around us all the time, and they do not have any effect. It also depends on the area of the body that is exposed.

If the whole body is exposed to, say, 1,000 rads within a short time, this could be fatal. However, far higher doses can be applied to a small area of the body with less risk.

After a mild dose, the person may experience symptoms for just a few hours or days. However, a repeated or even a single, relatively low dose that produces few or no visible symptoms around the time of exposure may cause problems later on.

A person who is exposed to 3,000 rads will experience nausea and vomiting, and they may experience confusion and a loss of consciousness within a few hours. Tremors and convulsions will occur 5 to 6 hours after exposure. Within 3 days, there will be coma and death.

People who experience repeated doses, or who appear to recover, may have long-term effects.

These include:

• a loss of white blood cells, making it harder for the body to fight infection
• reduction in platelets, increasing the risk of internal or external bleeding
• fertility problems, including loss of menstruation and reduced libido
• changes in kidney function, which can lead to anemia, high blood pressure, and other problems within a few months

There may also be skin redness, cataracts, and heart problems.

Localized exposure may lead to changes in the skin, loss of hair, and possibly skin cancer.

Exposure to certain parts of the body is more dangerous than others, for example, the intestines.

The effects of radiation are cumulative. Damage to cells is irreversible.


Sources
CT scans should only be carried out when necessary, as they expose a person to more radiation than is usual in everyday life.
Exposure to radiation can result from workplace exposure or an industrial accident, radiation therapy, or even deliberate poisoning, as in the case of the former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in London by polonium 210 placed in his tea. However, this is extremely rare.

Most people are exposed to an average of around 0.62 rads, or 620 Gray each year.


Half of this comes from radon in the air, from the Earth, and from cosmic rays. The other half comes from medical, commercial, and industrial sources. Spread over a year, this is not significant in terms of health.

Levels of radiation from an x-ray are not high, but they occur at one moment.

• A chest x-ray gives the equivalent of 10 days' exposure to radiation
• Mammogram gives the equivalent of 7 weeks' normal exposure
• PET or CT used as part of nuclear medicine exposes a person to the equivalent of 8 years of radiation
• A CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis gives the equivalent of 3 years' normal exposure

Nuclear medicine is used to target the thyroid in people with a thyroid disorder. Other types of medical treatment include radiation therapy for cancer.

Living at a higher altitude, for example, in the plateau of New Mexico and Colorado, increaseexposure, as does traveling in an airplane. Radon gas in homes also contributes.

Food, too, contains small amounts of radiation. The food and water we drink is responsible for exposure to around 0.03 rads in a year.

The many activities that can expose people to sources of radiation include:

• watching television
• flying in an airplane
• passing through a security scanner
• using a microwave or cell phone

Smokers have a higher exposure than non-smokers, as tobacco contains a substance that can decay to become polonium 210.

Astronauts have the highest exposure of anyone. They may be exposed to 25 rads in one Space Shuttle mission.



Protection
Damage by radiation is irreversible. Once the cells are damaged, they do not repair themselves. Until now, there is no way for medicine to do this, so it is important for someone who has been exposed to seek medical help as soon as possible.

Possible treatments include:

• Removing all clothing,
• Rinsing with water and soap.
• Use of potassium iodide (KI) to block thyroid uptake if a person inhales or swallows too much radioiodine
• Prussian blue, given in capsules, can trap cesium and thallium in the intestines and prevent them from being absorbed. This allows them to move through the digestive system and leave he body in bowel movements.
• Filgrastim, or Neupogen, stimulates the growth of white blood cells. This can help if radiation has affected the bone marrow.

Depending on exposure, radiation can affect the whole body. For cardiovascular, intestinal, and other problems, treatment will target the symptoms.

 

[kroberts2131]

Nothing a little radaway won’t cure..

I see what you did there!

 

[-Pjackso]

Ha!
So, Hillary didn't sell -all- the uranium!


But seriously, (3) buckets of Uranium - just sitting there?
In a museum? My head hurts from the absurdity of this.

 

[dennishoddy]

Ha!
So, Hillary didn't sell -all- the uranium!


But seriously, (3) buckets of Uranium - just sitting there?
In a museum? My head hurts from the absurdity of this.

You would be surprised at how little people don't know about radiation and its effects on the human body.

 

[ignerntbend]

Is that the PC way of saying "midgets"?