solidsurfacealliance.org Blog

This link is an interview with John William Gofman, who was

” a professor emeritus of Medical Physics at UC Berkeley, and lecturer for the Department of Medicine, UCSF. While getting As PhD in physics at Berkeley in the 1940s, Gofman proved the slow and fast neutron fissionability of uranium-233. At the request of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gofman helped produce plutonium (not even a quarter-milligram existed at the time) for the Manhattan Project. He got his MD from UCSF in 1946 (winning the Gold-Headed Cane Award, presented to the senior who most fully personifies a “true physician”) and began his research on coronary heart disease. In 1963 the Atomic Energy Commission asked him to establish a Biomedical Research Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to evaluate the health effects of all types of nuclear radiation. By 1969, however, the AEC and the “radiation community” were downplaying his warnings about the risks of radiation . Gofman returned to full-time teaching at Berkeley, switching to emeritus status in 1973.”

Goffman explains why a single track of ionizing radiation through a cell can lead to cancer. He also postulates that X ray radiation (no different than Gamma from a granite countertop) is more harmful that the atomic bomb radiation. It seems that the X ray radiation is traveling slower, leaves more energy deposited in a cell than a faster moving atomic bomb Gamma or Nuetron ray.

One of his most troubling messages was this:

“Women irradiated 15, 20 years ago got horrendous doses from mammography compared to now. And therefore, some of the present increase in breast cancer has to be from the radiation they got.”

Apparently they have learned to use lower doses and a few are concerned that they did a lot of harm in the past.

And this was a troubling quote:

“If I were a member of the public, knowing what I know: if the establishment told me that something had a certain risk, I’d assume that the true risk was at least 10 times worse.”

This interview is an easy read, not at all technical. It makes you think about what made this esteemed expert unacceptable to the government. Might be a case of shooting the messanger.

Dr. Gofman interview.