European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine radiation by Daniel  associated press aviation Alia my the sky and rises from the ground. Granite buildings Emit it. As do the elements in human bodies. Like the wind and the rain. Radiation the Alnes Capata pan of our environment. Last monday fallout from fhe soviet nuclear Powei Plant disaster was believed to have tin the United slates West coast end Midwest during rainfall that was the word from Lester Machta head of the division of the air resources Laboratory of tvs National oceanic find atmospheric administration ant a member of an note Agency task Force dealing with Trie chernobyl reactor fire. Contrary to the situation in parts of Europe. Ire Bald there was no detection of extra radioactivity at ground Tevel in the United states. During a typical year most people receive As much radiation from natural sources As from things like nuclear reactors and a rays. Even the extra radiation that spread Over areas of Western Europe alter the chernobyl disaster in some cases Many limes More than what is normally registered was judged1 by . Authorities to be relatively Small. One common source of radiation is cosmic rays from space. The atmosphere protects people from most cosmic radiation but exposure increases with Elevation. Residents of mile High Denver for example soak up More than new yorker do i would like to Tell people whales they Llew Heck rom Europe they received More radiation exposure than probably anybody outside the Kiev area close to the reactor received said Nobel laureate Rosalyn Yalow of the Bronx veterans administration Hospital in new York City. Yalow who won the Nobel prize in Medicine in 1977 for Deveta Penl of Fie  which uses radioactive isotopes to measure. Hormone Levels said people lying at 39,000 feet gel one Milf Flem of radiation an hour assuming there Are no sunspots which increase it. Airline craps who Fly across tha Ocean on the. Average receive As much or More radiation exposure As do nuclear Power workers she said. Absorbed rat fiction is measured in units called ram and my firem. A ill lire is one thousandth of a ram. Generally people receive about 100 Miil irem of. Radiation a year Row natural sources. Guidelines Tor employees Al nuclear Power plants in the United Stales limit radiation exposure to 3,000 Miil irem per three month period. The sources Are divided about equally Between cosmic rays material in the soft and rocks and radioactive elements like polassium-40 in the body. However the exposure Dif teis from place to place depending on the Altitude and variations in the natural sources of radar lion in the Earth. For instance people living on the Atlantic Seaboard get Aboul 65 Miil irem a year irom natural sources while in Denver they receive about 150. Another source or radiation is diagnostic x rays. The average annual dose from medical x ays is 77 ill lire while dental a rays add one Mote. Some radiation is left Over from nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere in the 1950s, this. New York Tom photo technician readying fuel rods for rotting at department of Energy Hartford nuclear rat Vatican in Hansard wait or Apo bocks it Atteo Tom Derale uranium Lagan Stais Wergey by Stow Neutron and abutting Gamma radiation olt Cooling system or Usco Nirott lit or it Energy store Din graph la irom nuclear la ssh it rtkus51� Lay ire Graphite caning la Ohear Iron fire Crew he Bijou hdm Wala of me Core. Blowing oxygen to read burning Oref Tot and teed me fire Oas Graphite bums uranium lust rods ire  radioactive gases Mlo Ains Titre adds four or five Roll lire a year Power plants and other nuclear operations contribute less f Han 1 ill tired a year for the average american. Machines like Luminous dial watches Airport x Ray scanners smoke detectors Electron microscopes and cardiac pacemakers and building materials such As Granite and Concrete can release tiny amounts of radioactivity which add up to about 4 or s Miil irem a year. Three quarters of this comes from building materials. If radiation exposure is High enough it can cause cancer and genetic damage but cancer takes Lime. Thirty or 40 years May elapse before a High dose of radiation causes this disease. No one knows the flier ubiquitous Low level Radiator does any harm. A can t be Sura it does t have some elect said or. Warren k. Sinclair president of the National Council on radiation Protection and measurement but we be lived with it Tor a Long time and in s certain that we can t see its effects if indeed it has  last year the american College of radiology issued a report estimating Towl the risk of harm o an average patient from a diagnostic a Ray is about the same As raved la 300 Miles by car working for Lod Vysata typical Blue Collar jog or drinking a bottle of wine. Because the increased risk it any exists is so Small thousands of people would have to be studied Tor years to find a statistical link Between Low tavant radiation and cancer. For instance to learn whether breast a rays do any damage the radiology College said scientists would have to follow at least 60 million women from age 35 until death. Such a study would be far too expensive to undertake. Sunday May 11, 1966 the stars and stripes Page 13