# The Radioactive Boy Scout **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767 "2003-09-20T05:23:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/41 "2016-11-19T08:27:53Z")
It’s unlikely that someone outside a nuclear profession would be exposed to that level of radiation, but Hahn had a record of playing with isotopes to the point of creating a Superfund site in mom’s backyard. That would be a special case. Also, more than just submarines have nuclear power plants these days. In any case, I’m guessin Hahn couldn’t pass psychological screening for submarine duty even aside from the radiation issue. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/42 "2016-11-19T08:52:07Z")
I’m not sure there is actually any useful way of testing for prior exposure. You could test for the presence of radioactive isotopes in the blood, but this is not going to indicate prior exposure to radiation, only that you have breathed or ingested stuff, and recently.You would need to find DNA damage, and that is basically impossible. Running them under a gamma camera might find a hot spot where a bit of radioactive dust has lodged, but you would need to be lucky, and that still won’t find alpha and beta emitters. A whole body CT scan might turn up thus far undiagnosed tumours, but even then they would only become visible pretty late in the game. Anyone who has a known history of exposure to an occupational hazard will typically be considered poorly for a job that involves further exposure to the hazard. It makes for a really messy legal problem if they later develop health issues. You often have no way of base-lining the current situation, and will find yourself in an impossible situation if you get sued. Employing a guy to help tend a reactor known to have spend his youth inhaling radioactive dust in his shed is not smart. If he develops a cancer especially one linked to radiation exposure, you are going to find things very messy. Better to keep him away from the hot stuff. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/43 "2016-11-19T15:49:17Z")
In other words, the title, _The_ Radioactive _Boy Scout_, is a bit of a misnomer. Hahn himself was not radioactive in the sense that you could pass a Geiger counter over his body and get a lot of ticking. He was just exposed to radiation, and possibly absorbed a few isotopes, though he made a fair effort not to. That tends to be hard to measure conclusively after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/44 "2017-04-23T18:03:41Z")
[“Radioactive Boy Scout” regularly visited by FBI for a decade, father says.](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/radioactive-boy-scout-regularly-visited-by-fbi-for-a-decade-father-says/) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/45 "2017-04-23T18:47:52Z")
And in answer to the question I posed: > [@](#): > > On Tuesday, David’s father, Kenneth Hahn, called Ars to confirm that his son died of alcohol poisoning and that his previous nuclear experiments played no role in his passing… > > Citing a toxicology and autopsy report, Kenneth Hahn said his son was found with a dangerous level of blood alcohol content, 0.404, late in the evening on September 26, 2016. The “radiation injury,” he explained, refers to a small burn on David’s wrist dating back to his experiments. > > “Dave was shopping at Walmart to get some food. It was around 10:30pm at night, and I guess he went to get some groceries,” Kenneth Hahn said. “They found him in the restroom about 20 minutes later, deceased. There was no way to revive him.”… > > Prior to his death, Hahn accompanied his son to the Veterans Administration hospital for quarterly routine checkups. Medical staff there found no lingering ill effects from the earlier radiation exposure. > **[Man who tried to build a homemade nuclear reactor didn’t die of radiation...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/radioactive-boy-scout-died-of-alcohol-poisoning-not-radiation-father-says/)** > > David Charles Hahn's dad: "I’m proud of my son and I’m very sad that he’s gone." ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/46 "2017-04-23T18:57:27Z")
Very sad. But not surprising, I guess. Does cocaine abuse cause the same kind of picking-at-your-skin-resulting-in-facial-sores that we usually associate with methamphetamine users? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/47 "2017-04-24T03:41:26Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > And in answer to the question I posed: > > [Man who tried to build a homemade nuclear reactor didn’t die of radiation poisoning | Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/radioactive-boy-scout-died-of-alcohol-poisoning-not-radiation-father-says/) Further evidence that radiation is not as dangerous as the popular hysterical opinion holds it to be. The occupational regulations and limits are absurdly conservative. The way a lot of people talk about mild radioactive sources, like radon, you would think that somebody was trying to make them sleep with 10 pounds of plutonium on their chest. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/48 "2017-04-24T03:54:20Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Further evidence that radiation is not as dangerous as the popular hysterical opinion holds it to be. The occupational regulations and limits are absurdly conservative. The way a lot of people talk about mild radioactive sources, like radon, you would think that somebody was trying to make them sleep with 10 pounds of plutonium on their chest. Yeah, you don’t want to be ingesting alpha-emitters… Being “exposed” to radiation is one thing, getting radioactive particles inside your body is something else. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/49 "2017-04-24T12:59:09Z")
You can’t really draw any conclusions about radiation hazards from this case, because he died very young. Maybe he was due to die of cancer by age 50, if he hadn’t died of alcohol poisoning before 40. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/50 "2017-04-24T13:41:47Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Further evidence that radiation is not as dangerous as the popular hysterical opinion holds it to be. How is this man’s early death of other cause evidence that radiation is not dangerous? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/51 "2017-04-24T14:32:55Z")
There are people convinced that radiation will kill you very rapidly, or given you cancer in a very short time period. Obviously, that did not happen in his case. It’s not evidence that radiation is harmless, it’s evidence it’s not as harmful as some people on the fringe believe it to be. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/52 "2017-04-24T15:16:50Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There are people convinced that radiation will kill you very rapidly, or given you cancer in a very short time period. Obviously, that did not happen in his case. It’s not evidence that radiation is harmless, it’s evidence it’s not as harmful as some people on the fringe believe it to be. “The poison is in the dose” applies to radiological exposure, too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/53 "2017-04-24T15:19:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You can’t really draw any conclusions about radiation hazards from this case, because he died very young. Maybe he was due to die of cancer by age 50, if he hadn’t died of alcohol poisoning before 40. Digging around, his father admitted that his son died of alcohol poisoning, which leaves the issue of radiological injury moot. Or at worst, indeterminate. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/54 "2017-04-25T02:25:41Z")
It looks like the medical examiner determined that he died of “intoxication by the combined effects of alcohol, fentanyl, and diphenhydramine.” The only note about anything radiation related was that he had a “history of cutaneous radiation injury,” but his father said that referred to a burn scar on one of his wrists from when he was attempting to build his breeder reactor. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/55 "2017-04-25T07:27:53Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There are people convinced that radiation will kill you very rapidly, or given you cancer in a very short time period. Obviously, that did not happen in his case. It’s not evidence that radiation is harmless, it’s evidence it’s not as harmful as some people on the fringe believe it to be. Well yes - the fact that he didn’t turn green and die as a teenager is the evidence that not all cases of radiation exposure are alike. The fact that he died of some other cause is not evidence of anything related to radiation. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767/56 "2017-04-25T21:39:49Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#): > > “The poison is in the dose” applies to radiological exposure, too. 😉 Yeah, but the general public opinion is that all radiation accidents are of the same severity as [Louis Slotin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin#Criticality_accident) or [Chernobyl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster) (depending on scale). The reality is that if you don’t die a slow agonizing death within a month of the exposure, and you haven’t ingested any emitters, you’re statistically likely to get cancer five years or so sooner than the average. Hell, airline pilots get WAY more ionizing radiation than is allowed for nuclear plant workers (in the form of cosmic rays), and they’re not dropping like flies. Just like the stable heavy metals, it’s really only terribad if you get it in you. A lot of the media frenzy over, say, depleted uranium ammunition and thorium lantern mantles is because the factory is a superfund site and the end user breathes in the dust, and in the latter case the heavy-metal poisoning is a much bigger concern than the radioactivity – it’s been in the ground for five billion years plus God only know how long before the Earth solidified, it’s obviously not decaying fast enough to throw off too terribly harmful an amount of radiation as long as you don’t inhale a LOT of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-radioactive-boy-scout/202767.md?page=2)