Guest guest Posted November 3, 2001 Report Share Posted November 3, 2001 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 3, 2001 Report Share Posted November 3, 2001 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 > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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