Summary: Full Body Burden
Plutonium Contamination and Radiation Effects In Kristen Iversen 's book, Full Body Burden, she talks about the causes and effects of the plutonium contamination and radiation effects. There are many effects caused by plutonium contamination and radiation exposure. There are many different types of cancer caused by the exposure. There are three main cancers discussed in her book. They include bone or lung cancer, brain cancer, and leukemia. Bone and lung cancer is a main effect of plutonium contamination in the air if inhaled. After the Mother 's Day fire in nineteen sixty-nine, Rocky Flats began offering tours for the public. During the tour, each person receives a respirator and is dressed in laboratory smocks and booties. The tour
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In nineteen seventy-eight, Dr. Carl Johnson 's research reaches the public. He shows an evident pattern of large incidences of all cancers in every age group people in areas exposed to the Rocky Flats facility. It is also discovered that the workers at the plant have around eight times more brain tumors than is presumed. He is also discovered that the workers have “triple the number of malignant melanomas”(Iversen 168). There was a specific case involving Don Gabel. He began working at the plant in nineteen seventy and after a year of working at the plant, he was transferred to Building 771. This was the plutonium processing building. Gabel then learned to use a furnace that melted plutonium and he spent most of his workday with his head a few inches away from a sign that read: DO NOT LOITER. Just a short while after his transfer to Building 771, he was told to tear off a strip of tape from a tank that had been contaminated. He was tested and “his hands, face, and hair measured 2,000 counts of alpha radiation per minute”(Iversen 184). After six years of working at Rocky Flats, he was tested again and this time his entire body measured more than one million counts per minute. The radiation had caused the chromosomes in his brain and blood to be altered and he developed a large tumor on the side of his
In nineteen seventy-eight, Dr. Carl Johnson 's research reaches the public. He shows an evident pattern of large incidences of all cancers in every age group people in areas exposed to the Rocky Flats facility. It is also discovered that the workers at the plant have around eight times more brain tumors than is presumed. He is also discovered that the workers have “triple the number of malignant melanomas”(Iversen 168). There was a specific case involving Don Gabel. He began working at the plant in nineteen seventy and after a year of working at the plant, he was transferred to Building 771. This was the plutonium processing building. Gabel then learned to use a furnace that melted plutonium and he spent most of his workday with his head a few inches away from a sign that read: DO NOT LOITER. Just a short while after his transfer to Building 771, he was told to tear off a strip of tape from a tank that had been contaminated. He was tested and “his hands, face, and hair measured 2,000 counts of alpha radiation per minute”(Iversen 184). After six years of working at Rocky Flats, he was tested again and this time his entire body measured more than one million counts per minute. The radiation had caused the chromosomes in his brain and blood to be altered and he developed a large tumor on the side of his