Then, of course, we have Lab representatives pointing out that radiation levels are well below regulatory standards, while citizen advocacy groups argue that such statements by the Lab distort reality.

The Lab, the City, regulatory agencies and the citizen activist groups have been at this for a long time. But, it is only now that this issue, (primarily due to intense media coverage of the Alameda County Board of Education resolution) has risen into the visual field of the public at large, and particularly, of parents with children who frequent the Lawrence Hall of Science.

What to do? Well, fortunately one thing is working in the citizens' and parents' favor here: The City of Berkeley has hired an independent consultant, Berndt Franke, a person with a very positive track record with the public, to perform an independent analysis of potential risks. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, in turn, was wise enough to contract with Dr. Owen Hoffman of SENES Oak Ridge, who is known to many members of the public and scientific community at sites of environmental radiation releases as a very straight shooter, with high integrity, someone who tells it like it is.

So, we are off to a good start with regard to the "experts" to be involved in helping to analyze the true risk presented. The Lab plans a series of meetings with parents to answer questions and safety concerns, and those questions and safety concerns are rolling in, perhaps faster and in much greater quantities than the Lab had anticipated or hoped.

Because the two of us, as Berkeley parents, are also both people ("Hanford downwinders") who were exposed as children to offsite radiation emissions from the Hanford nuclear weapons facility in southeastern Washington State, we are understandably both a bit wary of blanket safety assurances by operators of federal facilities handling radioactive materials. After all, our parents were reassured by the operators of the Hanford facility that it was perfectly safe to live downwind of the plant. And the result? Both of us now have severe thyroid disease from the radioiodine we inhaled and ingested as infants and children from Hanford's releases. We have parents and other relatives who have died far before their time from aggressive forms of cancer.

We realize that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Hanford are two distinct radiation release scenarios, but safety reassurances made by the Lab cause in us a certain hesitation to believe without proof. We are ready to listen and to learn, like the parents who have spoken to us, but our fears are not readily put to rest by Lab officials saying not to worry.

Trisha Pritikin is the parent of two children in the Berkeley public schools, and Steve Wagner is the parent of one child in the BUSD.