Readings for this week's Homework, and more followup

For the homework this week, I've asked you to read a couple of online documents (plus one that I posted to the portal page - check under week 5). The online documents are:
the EPA website overview of common radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) - an overview of the radioactive isotopes that the EPA most commonly deals with, both when it is concerned with cleanup of sites with large amounts of radioactive contamination, and also when it is concerned with regulating usage of radioactive isotopes in medicine and technology.
A training module from Princeton University on health effects of ionizing radiation

I'd like to point out that both of these sites are worth exploring for more information. The EPA website has a pretty decent general introduction to radiation physics - you could almost use it as a backup "textbook" for this class. Also, there are a couple of brochures you can get in their public information section that give you the current-day flavor of government communications about radiation (interesting to contrast with cold-war era documents).

The Princeton training module is part of the radiation safety classes you have to take if you work with radioactive isotopes in your laboratory or workplace. The rest of the training manual is also online, and you might find it interesting to browse other sections.

Finally, as a follow-up link, some interesting government studies on fallout:
CDC website on global fallout from nuclear weapons testing