FDNY False Alarms

To the Editor:

Last week's article about the additional training now under way for the Emergency Medical Service Bureau of the Fire Department included a quote from Lieutenant Melaragno, the instructor, about radiation safety in the city, in which he said:

"Who knows how many nuclear reactors there are in the city? Anyone know? Columbia University has a small reactor."

As someone who attended Columbia and who just double-checked with the Health Physics/Radiation Safety officer there, permit me to point out:

That statement is every bit as erroneous as then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's in front of the UN about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no such weapons in Iraq, and there is no nuclear reactor at Columbia. (Columbia was preparing to install a General Atomics reactor back in the mid-1970s. They never fueled it, it was never radioactive, and most of the equipment has been scavenged for other purposes.) Perhaps someone should take an objective look at how much of the FDNY training and equipment is based on valid needs, as opposed to unsupported fears and hysteria.

DANNY BURSTEIN

Editor's note: Mr. Burstein is a former officer of Emergency Medical Service Local 2507 of District Council 37.