The banning of school trips to the Refuge and Broomfield’s backing out of its Jefferson Parkway commitments are compelling lessons on why misinformation can be dangerous.
Why you?
You are the only bulwark between misinformation and local policy, and benefit hugely by representation on the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council when issues concern Rocky Flats arise. At the same time, you are vulnerable to pressure from people who may (or may not!) be constituents but are technically ignorant on important issues. The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment maintains useful, reliable, and readable results about Rocky Flats here.
One eventual goal of our website is to legally challenge decisions concerning Rocky Flats made without due diligence into the scientific findings about the Refuge.
What could go wrong?
An example of what can happen to an unprepared official is provided by a phone interview between Paul Karolyi and Lisa Flores, representing the Denver School Board.
Resources on this website
The following links introduce you to the anti-Refuge Rocky Flats activists, their viewpoints and weaknesses, and the latest (2022) data for the Refuge and the science that demonstrates that completely unrestricted use of the Refuge results under all circumstances in negligible (in fact, at this time, completely undetectable) harm. It provides credible, robust documentation to an evidence-based refusal to acquiesce to bullying by opinionated non-science folks.
PK 28:17 So tell me how Rocky Flats came up in the course of the school board’s work.
LF 28:26 Um, I think that I can’t be certain when we actually began to hear from constituents. However, I think we first started having folks show up as public comments in January. And I in addition to
PK 28:47 LF told me that the board members talked about the issue a few times internally.
LF 28:52 At this last board meeting, it felt time to take action in in a common sense way.
PK 29:01 A common sense way. What do you mean?
LF 29:04 Well, I would say that, you know, plutonium is like nothing else. In terms of the contamination that takes place with plutonium has a half life of 24,000 years. And what that means is that…
PK 29:25 In case this all doesn’t sound immediately familiar, what she’s repeating here are the activist main talking points. They’ve been saying this kind of stuff for years now.
PK 29:35 So I don’t know I guess I’m saying like, “Did you consult experts and scientists who had not come to you?”
LF 29:44 Well, in full disclosure, I live with a home engineer with two degrees from Colorado School of Mines. I If you don’t want to know what our pillow talk looks like, is very geeky in nature.
PK 30:11 I mean, if it has, honestly to, to be fair, I mean, if the contents of your your pillow talk have bearing on the public health, I think it would be worthwhile to share some of that. Because these, like this, what you said about like a single particle of plutonium and half life, like, those things have been disputed by independent scientists who have not been related to the Rocky Flats issue for a long time.
LF 30:49 I think so, you know, I was a little tongue in cheek when I had said that, but I think part of it is that is basic physics, in terms of how they helped us point plays out, and again, plutonium is like nothing else. Okay.
PK 31:11 …But the details, the really important stuff that should have informed a big decision like this, she’s a little shaky on those?
LF 31:25 Well, it’s interesting to see our new ban on a field trip to Rocky Mountain Arsenal. So this isn’t necessarily an issue about sites in Colorado that once you know, more production sites for weapons of mass destruction, right. But the chemicals that and again, there was a huge cleanup effort for Rocky Mountain Arsenal. But the contamination that takes that would potentially take place is that you actually have to inject that toxicity. Right. And with Rocky Mountain flat, it’s about plutonium for airborne contamination, then again, the toxicity level is extreme. So this isn’t, this isn’t a whole, separate category. And again, I think we all as a board felt that the concerns of our constituents were legitimate, and that it was fair for us to exercise with caution.
PK 32:31 So you said just a second ago that the the potential harm of the contaminants at Rocky Mountain Arsenal was from ingestion? And then you said that the harm potential harm from plutonium is airborne. Now, what do you mean by airborne because I’ve been told that plutonium is an alpha emitter, and it’s only dangerous when you ingest it.
LF 32:58 You You don’t have to ingest plutonium, you just need to be near it. Okay.
Among the anti-refuge activists there is not a single physical scientist. The hapless LF knew only what the anti-Refuge activists had told her, and she repeated statements that are factually incorrect. [The Pu isotopes at Rocky Flats emit so few gamma rays that soil samples must be lab-measured, and the alpha particles they DO emit have a range of roughly two inches in air.]
PK summarized the issue clearly
PK 33:19 …What does it say about all these other school boards that they didn’t talk to anyone other than the activists before they made these big decisions? I get that it seems like common sense that any inkling of danger demands a response when children are around. But these decisions have huge implications. LF cited the Jeffco field trip ban as a precedent for her own decision. Now she’s provided cover for politicians and even higher offices to do the same.