Elaborating a bit more about radiation and milk, I would like to clarify why it is OK to keep the milk in the fridge and it is not advisable to ingest the milk (and why Dr Hale recommends emptying the breast). There are two ways in which you can be exposed to radiation: external exposure and internal exposure or contamination. Radiation affects the cells in your body organs and tissue. Radiation are for the most part, highly energetic gamma rays, although there are isotopes that decay emitting beta particles (loose electrons), positrons (same mass as electrons but positive charge) and alpha particles (heavier particles). Gamma rays are in nature like photons: no mass, just lots of energy and the deposition of that energy when the gamma rays collide with the atoms in the body is what causes the damage. Having no mass, gamma rays are what we look at when evaluating external exposure, because they travel a longer path before loosing all their energy. Beta particles and positrons have mass and they loose their energy in a very short pathway. This is even more so with alpha particles, which are stopped by a sheet of paper. Thus, it is clearly not the same to have beta particles or alpha particles decaying inside the body or having them coming from a container with a decaying substance. In the case of gamma rays, bear in mind that distance diminishes the radiation field (it goes with the inverse of the distance squared, thus is falls rapidly). And also remember that only a fraction of whatever radioactive substance the mother has in her body goes to the milk. Since the mother has acceptable amounts or the isotope inside the body (mind you, for her body mass and development stage), what passes to the milk is a fraction of that. Another point to account for (and it is the last one, do not despair) is that gamma rays cause damage in living tissue but they DO NOT ACTIVATE THINGS AROUND THEM. That is why we need reactors that produce neutrons or accelerator that accelerate charged particles to produce radioisotopes. I hope this helps and does not confuse. Best regards, Veronica Veronica Garea PhD Engineering Physics, ME Nuclear Engineering Grupo de Apoyo a la Lactancia Materna de Bariloche IBFAN Bariloche - LLL Argentina *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html