Aah yes Rob, you are right, inhaling and tasting dust is unpleasant and triggers all kinds of acute respiratory problems.
Although whether there is a threshold of ionizing radiation dose that causes biological damage (stochastic or deteministic; early or late) is still a contraversial subject, I really doubt that inhaling dust that may or may not be radioactive will increase anyone's radiaiton dose to above the 1 mSv per general population dose limit (as set out by the IRCP (International Commission on Radiological Protection).
If one was to reach the 1mSv dose limit every year for 50 years, the risk to that person of contracting a fatal cancer will increase by about 0.2%. There will be an increased risk of another radiation effect occurring (a non-fatal cancer or a hereditary effect) of about 0.1%.
Most of us take other 'risks' of a carcinogenic nature or other health nature all the time without even blinking an eye. My apologies if I seem argumentative, but if the dust is radiactive thers's nothing we can do about it now, and at this time, it is probably of insignificant consequence.
We sill have to cop it. We live in a very dry place. The powers that be will just have to learn from it. And bring in some water trucks. And maybe subsidise brooms and mops and feather dusters (look our chooks), and perhaps we could collect all the dust and re-build the missing 12 Apolstles with it.
Kerrie
anyone else who was around south east queensland in the late 50s got a dose from the tests they did down south aus I believe.
