radioactive isotope, uranium-238 = in parts and bullets

[donsu]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=165693&category=ALBANY&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=9/1/2003


-snip-

The former National Lead Industries plant released uranium and lead as workers used a radioactive isotope, uranium-238, to make aircraft parts and armor-piercing bullets from the 1950s to the 1970s. The factory closed in 1984, and the 11-acre site was taken over by the federal government.

-snip-

According to the Atlanta-based federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the local National Lead Industries factory released 0.00000018 microcuries per milliliter of depleted uranium into the air from 1979 to 1984. That measurement is 54,000 times greater than today's legal limit, said Michael Brooks, the health physicist who studied the emissions.

"That's not unusual for a factory at that time," Brooks said. "There were a lot of industries that put out a lot of stuff."

-snip-

The federal government has left too many questions unanswered, she said. She believes the health hazard is far worse than the ATSDR study admits, based on measurements she has seen taken from the soil at the time.
-snip-
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so they have been using depleted uranium for a very long time without telling the workers of the hazards or protecting them while at work.

cancer and illness for the employees and their families for generations.

[htuttle]

1. But, but...

I thought toxic sludge was good for us?

[damnraddem]

2. Bad news for the workers; but not unusual.

Remember asbestos. On the other hand, after 20 years, the U-238 (the heaviest substance used for major industrial purposes) at the site will likely have sunk into the ground -- or into the ground water, as the case may be. For that matter, it would probably have sunk through the ground water -- unless its soluble. Anybody know?

[ozymandius]

3. There's a McDonald's in Athens, GA

where four inches of topsoil was carted away prior to the construction of the McDonald's building. The topsoil contained U-238 from the previous tenant: a manufacturer of clocks with hand-painted glowing hands. The paint was lovingly applied by people who are not around anymore because of cancer and such.