1) Several readers have complained that they could not find the articles on the global-warming/solar-activity connection in the issue of Science I referred to in AtE Jan 93. Small wonder, the journal should have been Nature, the rest is correct: Nature 11/26/92, pp. 328-333 (includes both articles). I am very sorry. Others wrote that they could not find Nature (in other references) in any library. Nature was founded some 150 years ago in London and is the leading international science journal. It will be found only in better college libraries and large central public libraries.
2) Dr. Alice Stewart, the British antinuke, rides again, this time with the risk of small radiation doses (which are known to be beneficial by hormesis). Unlike most other antinukes, Stewart has merits in the field: she was among the pioneers who showed that the rapidly multiplying cells of children (and cancer cells!) are more vulnerable to ionizing radiation than adult cells. But instead of continuing serious scientific research, she developed a lop-sid bias that now makes her "studies" worthless. Her latest study on the exposure of Hanford workers is duly celebrated on three pages with photographs by the New York Slimes (that alone should give you warning) although it has not been published yet. But what she says in the article is devastatingly refuted by Dr. Ralph Lapp in the Feb. 1993 Health Physics Society Newsletter (p.6).
3) What's the most important "greenhouse gas"? CO
2, says everybody. In fact, it is water vapor, as easily demonstrated by an absorption spectrometer. The fact has long been used by Prof. Sherwood Idso (Ariz. St. U.) and Dr. Hugh Ellsaesser (Lawrence Livermore Ntl. Lab). It has at long last also reached the physics community (J. Tomkin, "What gas lies behind the Green H2O use effect?" Physics Today, Dec. 1992, p. 13). Elsaesser has also protested to the AAAS for presenting an award to R. Watson and Albritton, members, of the NASA ozone trends panel, for their ozone layer research. In fact they engaged in panicky press releases, but did not publish the data on which they were based for two years, during which criticisms of their conclusions were turned down as criticisms of an unpublished report. The award is, among others, for "furthering public policy debates."4) The ASHRAE Journal (Amer. Soc. of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineering), Dec. 1992, published an interview "The CFC controversy" with F.S. Rowland, without telling its readers that he, together with M.J. Molina, was the one who started the ozone bail rolling in 1975 and is merely defending his own theory. He ignores natural sources of chlorine reaching the stratosphere and natural sinks of CFCs. For more details, send a SASE for R.A. Maduro, "What Sherwood Rowland isn't saying" to 21st Century Sci. & Techn., Box 16285, Washington, DC 20041.
5) "My son recently brought home a grocery bag with information regarding irradiation. I am shocked that you had the fortitude to print this. I applaud you! You have performed an honorable and brave action ...If you have a chance, please help advance this critical issue with the president of Albertsons, John Carley, at 208-385-6200." R. T., Diamond Springs, Calf.
Thank you. The fortitude is not mine, but that of the owner, J. Roscoe, of the grocery chain "Cheaper!", Box 886, Benicia, CA 94510. The issue is indeed critical. According to the center of disease control the 33 million foodborne diseases contracted annuually in the US are carried by eggs (1%), produce (2%), pork (5%), seafood (5%), beef (9%), poultry (10%), dairy (13%) and unknown foods (55%). The microorganisms causing these diseases can be killed by irradiation just as they are killed in sterilizing medical and cosmetic objects.
6) The Swedish study (Karolinske Institute) purporting to have found a link between exposure to electromagnetic fields and child leukemia used a bizarre method for getting a control group¾random selection from the group they were trying to investigate. Danish researchers who used no less than the entire population of Denmark under 15 years of age as their data base found a slight increase in risk for lymphoma, but no evidence of higher risk for leukemia. More details in Health Phys. Newsl., March 93, p.20.
7) "I have learned that you have derided Ayn Rand and do not want to give any kind of sanctions to her enemies. Therefore I am not renewing my subscription." H. U., Enskede, Sweden.
I have never breathed a word deriding Ayn Rand, and when you have verified this, I will not re-enrol you, as I do not wish to have subscribers who take action on hearsay. Whom I did deride are the priests of the Ayn Rand Institute who try to turn her name and teachings into a savage religion. At least one of them, Peter Schwartz, has also cheated and lied, as evidenced by his own letters (Fort Freedom, now at 914-941-1319, file ff 89 rand. txt).
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Vol. 20, No. 8
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 20 Issue/No.: Vol. 20, No. 8 Date: April 01, 1993 11:14 AM Title: The New Nevilles
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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