[Stoves] Fly ash cement and of levels of radioactivity?

Tue Feb 10 11:36:36 CST 2015

Dear G,
I know diddlysquat about mercury poisoning but could the judge had other
sources of mercury contamination from playing with it as a child which we
did with our hands just because it was fun to do. As a child, I liked to
play with that stuff. I forget our sources: I think we got hold of it from
big broken thermometers we found in drums behind the science building at
Antioch College in Yellow Springs Ohio. I played with mercury enough to be
well and truly polluted by the time I was 12. We used to apply it to
nickles and dimes and quarters to make them nice and shiny. We kept them in
our pockets until they turned dark again. What about the mercury used in
the fillings that went into our mouths 60 years ago?

In the sloppy and inexact social sciences we are taught to investigate the
most proximate causal agents in time and space before considering the
intermediate and more distant causal agents. I think that is what
the erasable Dr Gregory House always did when tracking down the improbable
(exotic) causes of improbable maladies. House would test all of the most
probable sources of improbable mercury contamination in his immediate
environment: air, soil, and water. Maybe he ate a lot of mercury
contaminated broccoli from his back yard. What about his local water
supply, the plumbing in his house and place of work, the plumes of smoke
bathing his house and courthouse, the lunch bar preparing his tuna sandwich
every day for 40 years, etc. before the sociopathatic good Doctor would
allow himself to scientifically conclude that mercury poisoning did the
judge in and that the most likely source of the mercury was his daily dose
of high mercury content tuna. Maybe his grandfather made hats in the
basement??

Also are we sure it was mercury portioning that killed the judge? What is
the evidence in favour of mercury as the primary agent that did him in?

In the era of crowd sourced pseudo science and urban legends we need to be
careful not to feed the hysterical mobs in waiting suffering from so much
angst and free floating anxiety that - like lightening - they instantly
discharge into pro and con factions around these dramatic and often
simplistic case studies. I should talk because I am an anthropologist who
are infamously paid to extract big conclusions from very little data.

I am not taking any side on this issue.  My feet are deliberately planted
in the neutral center of this debate. That way I am not in danger of being
fanatically wrong  or righteously right or as Rumi says: there is a field
out there beyond right and wrong, I'll meet you there (or words to that
effect). Where is Tom Lehrer when we desperately need him to lampoon us
back to sanity? Scientists of the world, don't hide your eyes but
depoliticize, depoliticize, depoliticize but ... always to call it
'research'. More evidence based research and less political correctness and
hysterical orthodoxy... please!

In search of a safe tuna sandwich (maybe it was the mayonnaise, the onions,
the pickles, or the dark rye?),

Cecil (still stuck in Seattle)

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 6:24 AM, Bamboo Science Group <
greg at bamboosciencegroup.com> wrote:

> In the words of Matthew McConaughey" Alright, Alright, Alright!"
> I'll look into it. My general understanding is that because of coal fired
> plants, mercury emissions are so prevalent that even the most pristine
> Scottish stream has Mercury contaminated salmon.
> I hope this is an urban legend.
> And Crispin, I recognize your iconoclastic perspective on many
> environmental phenomena, so I hope your right.
> Anecdotally, there was a local judge I knew around here ( north New
> Jersey) that had a tuna sandwich every weekday for like forty years and
> he succumbed to mercury poisoning.
> I have to chop up the celery now,
> G
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Feb 10, 2015, at 5:11 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
> crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:
>
>  One sandwich a week?
>
>  Who told you that?
>
>  Good grief. There is lots of mercury in the environment including in sea
> air, and there are completely unknown biological pathways metabolising it
> as was shown by the atmospheric research station at Cape Point. The general
> idea is that mercury is well "mixed in the atmosphere". Not so. Sometimes
> it drops to zero in the air blowing from Antarctica for hours at a time.
> There is no known process that can do this. Most atmospheric mercury is
> from the sea.
>
>  I am amazed that these coal memes survive for so long. There is a really
> good lab at Clarkson Univ in Potsdam‎ NY that researches Hg in fish in the
> Great Lakes. Fantastically small quantities can be detected. One sandwich a
> week?
>
>  Argh
>  Crispin
>    *From: *Bamboo Science Group
> *Sent: *Tuesday, February 10, 2015 12:14
> *To: *Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> *Reply To: *Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> *Subject: *Re: [Stoves] Fly ash cement and of levels of radioactivity?
>
>  Frans and Crispin,
> Thanks for putting dimensions on the issue. I know that coal ash is the
> bad actor.
> I'm still perturbed that I can only eat one tuna fish sandwich a week
> because of the Mercury from coal. C'est last game.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Feb 9, 2015, at 7:46 PM, Frans Peeters <peetersfrans at telenet.be> wrote:
>
>
>
> Bamboo Science Group*:* Re: [Stoves] Fly ash cement and levels of levels
> of radioactivity?
>
>
>
> As you guys delve into fly ash cement, I was curious if the levels of some
> of the ashes radioactive elements (Cs-137, Sr-90 and K-40) have been
> measured. The fly ash concentrates these natural occurring isotopes and
> could be problematic.
>
> G.
>
>
>
> Dear G.
>
>
>
>     Only K-40 is natural  !  gamma source of about 2000 Kev
>
> Cs-137 is man made gamma from reactors or boms fall out of 660 Kev
>
> Sr-90  / Y is man made also from reactor waste and boms but beta radiation.
>
>
>
> Fly ash has Uranium  with the isotopes till lead , low in beta and little
> in the dangerous ALPHA if ingested or sniffed into the lungs .
>
> Radium alpha and gamma and radon gas most alpha and changes to POWDER
> POLONIUM ALPHA CONTAMINANT into your LUNGS ;
>
> 2000 bq ALPHAS into your LUNGS gives CANCER after 1 year .!(Tested with 1
> microgram Pu-239  +-  5,5 MeV      )
>
> So wise guy 6bq each day sniffed into your lungs …..can give you a HIT !
>
> Not 600 Bq / Kg meat you eat with Cs 137 .gamma .
>
> Imagine the size  equation:  1 alpha as 1meter=1000mm canon-bullet versus
> Béta / gamma as a 1 mm bullet .
>
> Schoolbooks mention ALPHA is not penetrating paper and only *30 micron in
> liquid* ……*BUT IT IS THE BIGEST RADIATION  DANGER INSITE OUR BODY .*
>
> The Brit has  right !
>
> The Russion a “DURTY”  EUROPE CONTAMINATOR ! On the roof of the Chernobyl
> broken reactor ,workers were testing if alpha should be dangerous ….!.
>
> Lapland rendears  40 000 Bq/Kg  and   600Bq/Kg meat is MPD  maximum
> permissible Dose… to sell !
>
>      Our fly ash Uranium/Thorium/Radium/ Potasium from a coal power plant
> disturbed our beta counter for urine tests at 300 meter distance by wind! A
> 30mm Geiger with 60mm guard Geiger needed nitrogen gas flow as contra air
> contamination !!!
>
> Your radiation toy DOUS NOT MEASURE ALPHAS ! unless a 30 mm thin mica 525
> Philips tube .
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Frans
>
>
>
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