Editor: In response to the commentary by Gary Mansfield in Tuesday’s Tracy Press entitled, “Site 300 radiation rise miniscule,” while Mr. Mansfield discusses overall radiation dosage facts and limits, he fails to disseminate some rather important information regarding the different types of radiation and their different hazards. Mansfield goes on to compare the radiation from a typical chest x-ray to that given off by explosions of depleted uranium.
The facts of the matter are that a chest x-ray involves electromagnetic radiation – photons – particles of light. As one progresses through the electromagnetic spectrum from TV & radio waves, to thermal radiation and through the visible light spectrum to ultra-violet, x-rays and then gamma-rays, the frequency, and thus the energy of the radiation increases, and along with it, the damage it can do.
Then, we have nuclear radiation which involves massive particles – not mass-less photons, and as common sense would suggest, the bigger and more massive the particle, the more damage that can be done to the target of that particle. Within the realm of nuclear radiation there are basically two types (until you get to very high energies) – beta radiation (electrons), and alpha radiation (protons & neutrons,) the latter while moving more slowly, are nearly 2000 times as massive, so you can imagine the difference in the amount of damage that can be inflicted by a bombardment of such particles.
For a self-proclaimed radiation safety scientist to ignore such a major parameter in his discussion of radiation is more than a little striking.
Daniel Wells, Tracy