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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1961)
ation still is being used to treat noncancer ous conditions such as enlarged thymus, acne, psoriasis, and ringworm. Still another case is fluoroscopy, one of the most widespread of medical diagnostic procedures. The radiation dose delivered is much higher than from an X-ray machine, and there is a greater risk of the rays bombarding the patient in organs other than the one under examination. Yet in about half the cases, the fluoroscopic examination is conducted by a doctor who has not had special training in radiation. And despite widespread warnings, there are still hun dreds of shoe-fitting fluoroscopic machines in the U.S. to which children, are exposed. Radiation is a particular menace to young children whose fast-growing cells are much more vulnerable to damage and whose small bodies receive a much heavier dose than an adult's during treatment or diagnosis. We must realize that in them as potential parents lies the greatest danger of crippled, weakened future generations. Every dose of radiation to which a child is subjected, from the time he lies unborn in his mother's body until he has reached maturity, increases the danger to him of leukemia and other forms of cancer. In ad dition,' he faces a greater risk of damage to reproductive organs which can lead to sterility or to a defective descendant. 'T'oday we live in a highly mobile society. It is not unusual for a family with grow ing children to move five to 10 times from one state or region to another. In 10 years' time, there is no telling how much radiation their children may receive from a succes sion of doctors, dentists, school physical ex aminations, and hospitals. As we live today, there are no permanent family health rec ords which provide a clue to the number of these exposures. A solution to this problem appears later in this article. The second great menace lo health from radiation comes from fall-out. In this case, microscopic particles of ra dioactive debris are introduced into the atmosphere by the testing of nuclear weap ons. When this radioactive debris showers down on the earth's surface in snow and rain, it is absorbed by the soil, leaves, and roots of plants. As these plants are eaten by people or by the fish and grazing anir mals that people eat, the radioactive parti cles enter the human body. This dangerous radiation is unaffected whether the foods are eaten raw, boiled, fried, or broiled. Once within the body; the radioactive ma terial concentrates in our organs and bones; there it remains for years, incessantly giv ing off tiny doses of radiation which affect the bones, blood, or tissues. Even though nuclear weapon tests have been suspended since 1958, some fall-out debris is still drifting down and will con tinue to do so for several more years. An indication of the broadness of this radioactive danger was discovered as long ago as 1957 before the series of huge nu clear blasts by the U.S. and the Soviet Union when samples of radioactive stron tium were detected in snow near the South Pole; in the waters of the Danube River; in the Mississippi River; in some Midwest grain fields; and in milk in Australia. Strqntium-90, the most dangerous of ra dioactive particles, seeks out the bones in the human body. Concentrations in chil dren's bones in this country have mounted steadily since the start of testing of large nuclear devices. These concentrations are now three or our times higher than in the bones of adults. The maximum concentra tion of strontium-90 now occurs in infants of about one year of age and is 10 times that of the adult level. Asa result of recent scientific advances, the capability of producing cheap nu clear bombs will be brought within the reach of many nations. If these nations are not able to resist the temptation to test their new bombs, more radioactive fall-out inevitably will shower down on us. A few years ago, Atomic Energy Com mission spokesmen assured the public that the radioactive debris from fall-out would remain in the upper atmosphere for many years, and that when it did descend to earth, it would be evenly distributed over the entire surface of the globe. Tins past summer, results of scientific studies showed that fall-out debris, including strontium-90, has come down to earth much faster than the AEC anticipated, and that it has tended to distribute itself over the earth in very uneven fashion, with some cities and re gions getting a much higher dose of radio active particles than others. Fall-out from Russian bomb tests, for example, seems to have concentrated mainly on the northern regions of the earth which include not only the U.S. but 80 percent of the world's peoples. Salt Lake soil has been found to contain three times as much strontium-90 as Miami or Los Angeles. The highest concentration of strontium-90 in milk has been found in' St. Louis. We will not be able to tell for many years how harmless or dangerous these amounts of strontium-90 are. The third and newest hazard from radiation comes from nuclear power plants, and the industrial, military, and scientific nuclear projects that are al ready completed or planned for opera lion in the 1960s. Wherever these plants are, there is nu clear fission; wherever there is nuclear (Continued) Family Weekly, February 26, 1961 21 Callouses Pain, Burning, Tenderness on Bottom of Feet For fast, grateful relief, get Dr. SchoM's Zino-pada. They nUo remove cnllouaes one of the quickest ways known to medical science. L4 U Thousands Praise CUTICURA OINTMENT PSORIASIS READ THIS: "I've had psoriasis 10 years. Recently I had a serious at tack, my whole body being covered, . . . causing torturous suffering. 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