GEOGRAPHICAL LIFE EXTENSION

Until recently our government issued radiation maps calculated from efforts to predict geographical dependence of radioactive fallout deposition during a nuclear war. This still useful information is now politically incorrect. Fear, however, as a means to scare uninformed citizens into giving up more of their money and freedom in exchange for claims of government protection never goes out of style. The above map of EPA estimated radon zones is reprinted from The Health Physics Newsletter , p 9, February (1994).

Better and more detailed maps constructed from a compilation of data from the University of Pittsburgh, eleven independent state studies, and the EPA data are available in the paper by B.L. Cohen, C.A. Stone, and C.A. Schilken, Health Physics 66 p 201 (1994).

These maps can be useful, but not in the way that EPA intended. Cohen and coworkers (see December 1993 and February 1994 Access to Energy) have shown that lung cancer risk decreases as radon increases in the range between 0.5 pCi/L and 5 pCi/L. At some higher and, as yet, undetermined level the curve of cancer risk changes direction and correlates positively with radon level. The pie chart is from USCEA publication The Journalist's Guide to Nuclear Energy, 3rd edition p 20 available from USCEA, 17761 I Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006. It shows that Americans get about half of their radiation exposure from radon. Radon deficiency in the environment in the EPA Zone 3 areas can be made up by living at high altitude (cold) or more medical treatments (expensive and not constant). It cannot, however, be helped by moving next door to a nuclear power plant. Perhaps the nuclear waste disposal issue could be mitigated by storing measured quantities of waste in the homes of Americans who live in radiation deficient regions. Surely we all havea "right'' to our fair share of radiation.