Many moons ago I remember reading an article by Jerry Pournelle. It
was advocating nuclear power. One of the reasons people used against nuclear,
was the toxicity of plutonium. Jerry's response to this was that comparitively
speaking plutonium is quite mild as a poison. He used two examples: Botulinus
toxin (which was some god-awful number of deaths per teaspoon, I believe on
the order of hundreds of thousands?) and Arsenic Trioxide (50,000 deaths per
teaspoon). He said something on the order of "Now we don't go spreading
Botulism around but Arsenic Trioxide is widely used as a pesticide".
You can tell from my qualifying statements, that I don't have the article in
front of me, but if someone wants to look it up, it was in Galaxy Magazine back
in the 70's. JP wrote a monthly column for them at the time.
Actually, I'm suprised I remember as much as I do about the article....
Paul.Baughman.psu.edu
- ----------
Captain Sir Michael Talmoth, UPP: BA5A8B
"You see me now a veteran,
Of a thousand psychic wars,
I've been living on the edge so long,
Where the winds of Limbo roar.
- -- BOC