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I don’t know who Nader is, but if he said in 1975 that plutonium, or really anything at all, could kill 8 billion people then he was lying. We can be certain of

I don’t know who Nader is, but if he said in 1975 that plutonium, or really anything at all, could kill 8 billion people then he was lying. We can be certain of this because there were only 4 billion people alive back then, so it was literally impossible to kill 8 billion people. Or maybe I’m just not in the mood for this article right now.

fsh 4y ago
According to this stackoverflow post, the quote is probably made up: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18236/did-ralph-nader-say-that-a-pound-of-plutonium-could-cause-8-billion-cancers https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18236/did-ralph...
- eesmith 4y ago
  That link says Nader said "Any use of plutonium, a tiny 0.2 micrograms of which has given lung cancer to animals, must be viewed with utmost caution". That's pretty close. With a bit of Google Scholar search I found David Krieger's 1975 article "Terrorists and nuclear technology" in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1975.11458253 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1975.11... which says: > Plutonium-239, the product of the nuclear fuel cycle used for the construction of nuclear weapons, is one of the most toxic substances known to man. It is also a substance which occurs rarely in nature and is almost entirely man-made in the nuclear fuel cycle. One microgram of plutonium-239 ingested into the lungs is capable of causing lung cancer. Approximately, one 8,000,000th of a pound of inhaled plutonium has caused lung cancer in animals. Thus, when effectively dispersed, a much smaller quantity of plutonium than would be needed for a nuclear bomb could necessitate the evacuation of dense urban areas. There's the 8 billion. We know that quotes get mis-attributed to more famous people. My guess is that Krieger's comment got rephrased and mis-attributed to Nader, who was, after all, talking about the same topic.
  - eesmith 4y ago
    Turns out I can't math today. 1/(one 8,000,000th) = 8 million, not 8 billion.

fsh 4y ago

According to this stackoverflow post, the quote is probably made up: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18236/did-ralph-nader-say-that-a-pound-of-plutonium-could-cause-8-billion-cancers https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18236/did-ralph...

eesmith 4y ago
That link says Nader said "Any use of plutonium, a tiny 0.2 micrograms of which has given lung cancer to animals, must be viewed with utmost caution". That's pretty close. With a bit of Google Scholar search I found David Krieger's 1975 article "Terrorists and nuclear technology" in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1975.11458253 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1975.11... which says: > Plutonium-239, the product of the nuclear fuel cycle used for the construction of nuclear weapons, is one of the most toxic substances known to man. It is also a substance which occurs rarely in nature and is almost entirely man-made in the nuclear fuel cycle. One microgram of plutonium-239 ingested into the lungs is capable of causing lung cancer. Approximately, one 8,000,000th of a pound of inhaled plutonium has caused lung cancer in animals. Thus, when effectively dispersed, a much smaller quantity of plutonium than would be needed for a nuclear bomb could necessitate the evacuation of dense urban areas. There's the 8 billion. We know that quotes get mis-attributed to more famous people. My guess is that Krieger's comment got rephrased and mis-attributed to Nader, who was, after all, talking about the same topic.
- eesmith 4y ago
  Turns out I can't math today. 1/(one 8,000,000th) = 8 million, not 8 billion.