[ExI] How dangerous is radiation?

[Keith Henson]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 5:00 AM,  John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> There are lots and lots of radiologists but I wonder if there are enough
> high energy physicist to get a statistically meaningful result. And anyway
> when the beam is on there's 300 feet of rock between them and the
> radiation, neutrinos can still get through but I very much doubt they are
> harmful.

Ah . . . have you ever seen someone lining up the beam from an accelerator?

Back when I was in school, which makes it a long time ago, I saw one
of the high energy professor at the U of Arizona looking down the beam
line to see if it was lined up correctly.

I was offered a chance and looked thinking he was just lining it up
visually.  Nope, the beam was on and I got an eyeball full of
Cherenkov radiation.  Pretty, most intense blue you can imagine, but I
don't think it was a good idea.

Re the reduced cancer rates at 100 mS, not surprised.  Immune system
clearance of cancer cells would account for low doses having that
effect.  Most of us carry antibodies to leukemia cells, exceptions
being people who have it.

But it would be very hard to get research money to study the effect.
It's politically incorrect.

Keith