[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: Why We Should Not Worry About The Latest "WMDs in Iraq" Stories

[Spencer Graves]

On 7/10/2014 4:53 PM, Gerry Gras wrote:
>
>
> Spencer Graves wrote:
>> Hi, Gerry et al.:
>>
>>
>>
>>        One was marked 766 cpm (counts per minute), which per my
>> computations corresponds to roughly 30 micrograms, which is advertised
>> at $40 or very roughly $1 per microgram = $1 million per gram = $1
>> billion per kilogram.
>>
>>
>>        "As little as 15 lb (7 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an
>> atomic bomb" (Wikipedia, Uranium).  Natural uranium ore is 0.71 percent
>> U-235.  Thus, you'd need 140 pounds of natural uranium ore to get one
>> pound of U-235 or roughly a ton of ore to get 15 pounds of U-235.  If
>> you bought it from Amazon, you'd need $1 trillion.  You can probably get
>> it much cheaper elsewhere.
>>
>
> Ok.
>
>>
>>        As I said before, however, the bigger problem is biological
>> toxicity.  Wikipedia says that inhalation is a better problem than
>> eating it.  There are trace amounts of all kinds of toxic things in the
>> food we eat.  This probably includes uranium.  Fortunately, the amounts
>> are usually so small, the health effects are usually negligible.  I
>> doubt if 30 micrograms is enough to do you much harm, but I'm not going
>> to perform that experiment.
>
> Ok, so if a family with small children were to have this
> uranium ore, their biggest fear should that a child might
> eat it.


Fear#1:  Child (or adult) breaths it into lungs.  The cilia in lungs 
work to get rid of foreign material, but I don't think they are as 
efficient with uranium compounds as the rest of the body including the 
gastro-intestinal tract.


Fear#2:  Eating it.


Fear#3:  Radiation.


Wikipedia:  Uranium "occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few 
parts per million in soil, rock and water.  ... A person can be exposed 
to uranium (or its radioactive daughters such as radon) by inhaling dust 
in air or by ingesting contaminated water and food. [NOTE:  Everyone 
should make sure they have enough air circulation to prevent radon 
produced by decay of the uranium in the soil from building up to harmful 
levels.  This is especially a problem in basements, if I understand 
correctly.]


"[P]eople who work in factories that process phosphate fertilizers, live 
near government facilities that made or tested nuclear weapons, live or 
work near a modern battlefield where depleted uranium weapons have been 
used, or live or work near a coal-fired power plant, facilities that 
mine or process uranium ore, or enrich uranium for reactor fuel, may 
have increased exposure to uranium. ... Most ingested uranium is 
excreted during digestion. Only 0.5% is absorbed when insoluble forms of 
uranium ... are ingested, whereas absorption of the more soluble uranyl 
ion can be up to 5%. However, [the latter] tend to quickly pass through 
the body whereas insoluble [forms], especially when inhaled ..., pose a 
more serious exposure hazard. After entering the bloodstream, the 
absorbed uranium tends to bioaccumulate and stay for many years in bone 
tissue because of uranium's affinity for phosphates."


>
> But for national policies, the fears tend to be about WMDs,
> and these Amazon products should not be of concern in terms
> of WMDs.


Correct:  Weapons of minimal destruction ;-)

>
> Gerry
>
>
>>
>>
>>        Spencer
>>
>>
>> On 7/10/2014 11:51 AM, Gerry Gras wrote:
>>>
>>> What about this?
>>> http://www.amazon.com/naturally-contains-Uraninite-radiation-detector/dp/B00CQ9LLR4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405017912&sr=8-1&keywords=uranium 
>>>
>>>
>>> or
>>> http://www.amazon.com/Images-SI-Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM/ref=pd_sbs_indust_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0Z7KS0ES6P9Z995EEZGE 
>>>
>>>  .
>>>
>>> But I don't consider these to be very dangerous.  You would
>>> need a lot of these and some expensive equipment and some
>>> months to get weapons grade uranium.
>>>
>>> Gerry
>>>
>>>
>>> John Thielking wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: *John Thielking* <peacemovies at gmail.com
>>>> <mailto:peacemovies at gmail.com>>
>>>> Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 9:37 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] Why We Should Not Worry About The Latest 
>>>> "WMDs
>>>> in Iraq" Stories
>>>> To: eden <edenw at gal3.com <mailto:edenw at gal3.com>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Could you please repost this to the entire list? My computer is 
>>>> messing
>>>> up and won't let me reply all. Anyway, I double checked my Facebook 
>>>> wall
>>>> where I know I had saved the link to the Uranium available on 
>>>> Amazon.com
>>>> (and the whole rabbit too) but now the entire posting has gone 
>>>> missing.
>>>> Oh well. Uranium ore USED TO BE available on Amazon.com.
>>>>
>>>> John Thielking
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 9:20 AM, eden <edenw at gal3.com
>>>> <mailto:edenw at gal3.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>     On 14-07-10 08:18, John Thielking wrote:
>>>>>     The following text would not post to the article on rt.com
>>>>>     <http://rt.com> that talked about the uranium being stolen in 
>>>>> Iraq
>>>>>     because the software thought it contained "offensive 
>>>>> language". So
>>>>>     here it is uncensored:
>>>>>
>>>>>     Considering that you can buy research grade uranium ore on
>>>>>     Amazon.com, I wouldn't worry about this story. Since when did RT
>>>>>     start jumping on the "there are WMDs in Iraq" bandwagon? I 
>>>>> thought
>>>>>     that path was proven to be bogus in 2003. The chemical weapons in
>>>>>     Iraq story is also sourced from Reuters, probably USA planted
>>>>>     propaganda used to justify bombing Iraq yet again. Fool me once,
>>>>>     ok, but fool me twice? Come on RT, get it together.
>>>>
>>>>          I agree with your conclusion, but i tried to find uranium on
>>>>     Amazon and failed. Are you referring to something that i'm not
>>>> aware of?
>>>>
>>>>     --
>>>>     eden
>>>>
>>>>     _______________________________________________
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>>>>     sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org <mailto:sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
>>>> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>>>>
>>


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com