May 10, 2003

You can eat cake!

Oh -- wait. No you can't.

(Via Robyn.)

Posted by Andrea Harris at May 10, 2003 12:33 PM
Comments

Mmmmm...tasty yellow cakey goodness.

Posted by: robyn at May 10, 2003 at 12:36 PM

Actually "yellowcake" (uranium oxide) is amazingly harmless and only slightly radioactive (slow alpha particles--can be blocked by a sheet of newspaper or even your skin). The guy who ate some will probably have no ill effects at all, unless he ate a crapload (it is somewhat chemically toxic). However, if anyone got a good lungful of dust when they were dumping the barrels, they'll have a somewhat increased risk of lung cancer.
All in all, no big deal.
These people are at far greater risk of death from cholera in the water supply than from the yellowcake.

Posted by: Toren at May 10, 2003 at 03:17 PM

Still -- yuck.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 10, 2003 at 04:12 PM

Whew. Toren, I hope you're right, I was all set to be upset until I came back and read your post.

Posted by: Ceci at May 10, 2003 at 07:30 PM