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OT: [HEALTHE] What Mail Irradiation Does

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Hi y'all,

 

Like I say everytime I pass along a post from this list, don't take it

as being gospel .. but here is some information on irradiation. As far

as I know now .. the only plans for irradiation are for mail coming into

the Washington, D.C. area. Anybody heard differently?

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www/AV-AT.com

 

-------

[HEALTHE] What mail irradiation does

Fri, 2 Nov 2001 06:02:54 -0800

Andrew Gach <UncleWolf

Health and Environment Resource

Center<HEALTHE

HEALTHE

 

Hi Donna,

 

Heard this morning that the editorial offices of a Pakistani newspaper

have been infected by anthrax. So maybe it's Al Queda that's behind it,

after all. Will we ever find out?

 

They announced a warning on terrorist threats to two suspension bridges

leading to San Francisco: the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. I

hate to think what would happen if they blew up either of these bridges

during rush hour. The number of people killed could exceed the number

of those who died in the WTC attack.

 

Have received the following piece regarding the effects of irradiating

mail.

 

Hugs from the pack

 

Andy

===========================================

 

The USPS has already started to irradiate our mail. It is using 3

million rads for this process. The maximum allowable dose of irradiation

used on food products ranges from 1 t0 30 kilogreys. One grey equals

100 rads. 30 greys equals 3000 rads. 30 kilograys equals 3,000,000

rads. To give a comparison, the government allows 1 kilogray to be used

on pork products, which is the equivalent of 100,000 rads. This means

the government is requiring the mail to be irradiated at the maximum

allowable level for food products.

 

At the present time, the USPS has employed Titan Corporation for the

irradiation process. The following is a list of materials that will be

effected by " beam effects " of irradiation.

 

(This is what " is known. " A question might be, what isn't known??)

 

Initial Beam Effects Summary

Titan Corporation

San Diego HQ phone number: 858-586-6666

 

Pharmaceuticals: Pharmaceuticals respond differently to e-beam

irradiation based on their structure and the radiation stability that

such structure implies. Since anthrax destruction requires a fairly

high dose, due to the inherent radiation resistance of the anthrax

spores, it is likely that many pharmaceuticals will show a reduction in

their efficacy and/or stability.

 

Smart Cards, Chips: In general, controlled applications of low dose

e-beam irradiation have been successfully used in semiconductor

manufacturing to increase switching speeds as an alternative to gold

doping. High dose effects are expected to be deleterious. Specifically,

with respect to the effect of higher-dose e-beam irradiation on Smart

Cards, in a 1997 Bellcore study, researchers discovered that applying

ionizing radiation to a smart card's embedded chip can make it

vulnerable to reverse engineering, allowing the data on the chips to be

stolen. The radiation is apparently likely to cause voltages inside the

card to fluctuate, thus causing code execution faults and rendering it

vulnerable to the mathematical techniques used by cryptographers to

extract information stored in the card, including the key used to

authenticate the legitimacy of that card.

 

Data Storage: Irradiating magnetic data storage media (e.g., floppy

disks, data tapes, VHS tapes) will erase their data, whereas irradiating

digital storage devices (e.g., CD's) will not. Some data suggests that

not all credit card magnetic strips may be negatively impacted. In

terms of physical properties (e.g., warpage, tensile properties) of the

media, CD's and DVD's are typically made of polycarbonate, a

radiation-resistant polymer (in the type of dose range being used for

anthrax). However, polycarbonate-based materials, including some

eyeglass lenses, will develop coloration, typically of the

yellow/orange/brown variety.

 

Photo Film: E-beam irradiation will, in fact, expose unprocessed

photographic film in a similar manner as sunlight. However, unlike

sunlight, highly energetic electrons have the ability to penetrate even

opaque packaging materials and affect their contents. Developed

negatives are likely to show coloration, typically of the

yellow/orange/brown variety, upon irradiation.

 

Glass and Gemstones: Irradiation will produce coloration of glass and

gemstones, the exact color and intensity being dependent on the nature

of the mineral impurities within the matrix. E-beam irradiation is

currently used commercially to convert colorless topaz to deep blue

using very high doses. At lower dose levels, most glass/crystal will

turn a shade of gold or brown.

 

Heat Generation: Heat effects of e-beam irradiation are dependent on

dose and the inherent specific heat of the material in question. For

example, polyethylene irradiated to doses high enough to deactivate

anthrax would heat up by about 17 degrees C.

 

Gardeners, attention: irradiation is likely to kill mail order seed.

 

HealthE: Health and Environment Roundtable is provided as a public

service by Health & Environment Resource Center.

 

Archives and mail administration functions are available at

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/healthe.html

 

For automated list help send an e-mail with the message 'help' to

healthe-request

 

Information on Health & Environment Resource Center can be found at

http://www.herc.org

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Hey Butch, all...

 

Heard the same as you. BUT - since Florida and New York postal workers are both

sueing since they too,

have had anthrax and not just scares, we can probably expect irradiation sooner

or later - they feel

that they should have the same equipment for irradiation as the DC area does for

the same reasons -

anthrax. So.....sooner or later?

 

Stay safe.....be careful over there! And everyone else here do the same!!!! :)

 

Hugs,

 

Marilyn

 

Butch Owen wrote:

 

> Hi y'all,

>

> Like I say everytime I pass along a post from this list, don't take it

> as being gospel .. but here is some information on irradiation. As far

> as I know now .. the only plans for irradiation are for mail coming into

> the Washington, D.C. area. Anybody heard differently?

>

> Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www/AV-AT.com

>

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