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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1961)
ARE WE ENDANGERING OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN? (Continued) fission, there are radioactive wastes. Some of these wastes are being released into the atmosphere. Some are being introduced into our rivers. Some are being buried in the earth or dumped in the ocean. In underground steel tanks, enough ra dioactive waste is stored to pollute all the land and water of the U.S. These tanks are expected to last from 10 to 15 years. Then the material will have to be transferred, or some new method found for disposal. For several years, uranium mills have been pouring "low-level" radioactive wastes into rivers without Government regulation. The sea also is being used as a disposal plant for radioactive wastes. The waste is either sluiced into rivers that empty into the ocean or dumped overboard from barges in steel concrete containers. The day is close aj hand when we can change the oceans' salt water into fresh water and thus transform desert regions into rich foodlands but there is a risk that We may have polluted the oceans with radioactive material before that day arrives. Thus whole populations of the pres ent and future stand to be exposed involun tarily and unwittingly . to radioactive materials whose hazard to the human race can only be guessed. The long-term soe disposal of radioactive substances is an international public-health problem which will be uiith us for centuries to come, t Until now the responsibility for deter mining what dangers radiation raises and how to control them has been dissipated among too many scientific committees sup ported by various Government departments. A new administration in Washington and a new President are moving to grapple with the tremendous problems that face us at home and abroad. President Kennedy has appointed John Jay McCloy as director of the U.S. Disarmament Administration which will deal with the question of further nuclear testing. However, many scientists feel that the time is ripe for the establish ment. of a top-level agency to deal solely with radiation and national health. What seems to be urgently needed is a powerful new arm of the Government to protect our people today and the children of tomorrow from indiscriminate and exces sive doses of man-made radiation from any source. It must be concerned not with the development of nuclear energy but with the need to safeguard everybody's health. In the meantime, what can you as an in dividual do to protect yourself and your family against radiation? First of all, in regard to X-ray or fluoroscopic treatment, don't panic. There is no need to panic if we take constructive steps now. By con structive steps, I suggest that we all be gin a permanent radiation diary which describes the medical and dental radiation diagnostic tests and treatments which each member of your family undergoes. It should list dates of exposure, as well as the esti mated dosage when possible. Be sure that each physician or dentist who proposes a radiation test or treatment is acquainted with the diary's contents. I also suggest that we support organiza tions and legislation attempting to set up public safeguards against , the misuse and overuse of radiation. Legislation should be enacted providing that every baby in the U.S. be provided with a medical record which would itemize and total his known exposures to doses of man-made radiation from birth. Far more stringent controls should be exercised over radiation use. State legislatures should set up more stringent codes and regulations for licensing and supervising doctors, dentists, and tech nicians operating X-ray equipment. Medical and dental societies should ex ercise far more vigorous campaigns among doctors, dentists, and hospitals to reduce unnecessary exposure to radiation, and these should be augmented by far more stringent controls, at the state and Federal level, over radiological machines and the people operating them. TtWosT important of all, the public must be alerted to the dangers of radia tion from all man-made sources. Throughout the country, groups should be organized like the St. Louis Committee for Nuclear Information which has been publishing re . ports on radiation hazards and collecting the baby teeth of children to measure ac curately the accumulations of strontium-90. Cities and towns also would do well to fol low the example of New York where a Scientists' Committee for Radiation Infor mation is providing community groups with speakers on radiation and nuclear energy. As we move inevitably into the nuclear age, we all must realize that there still are enormous gaps in our knowledge of ra diation's possible harmful effects. If we fail to meet this deadly challenge in the coming decades, the results can be disastrous. The 1950s told us much that was new and alarm ing about radiation. But warnings by scien tists and medical men have not taken effect; we still lag in mobilizing our resources to meet this invisible enemy. Let us pray that, as we move further into the 1960s, we don't make the same mistakes. The stakes are the world of the future and its children. Family Weekly, February 26, 1961 9 Rj2IiON FLINTS $wmm But jot , &mi tiujhte. toNSONJ D06 HAVE WORMS? Just Add PVLVEX Worm Caps To Your Pet's Food k i n I J '7'Yj Thanks to I -li veterinary I L research, 1 xfifiit v u c 8 n I I fcSli2 easily worm jjj ' pJSf your dog or 1 I J- pup at home I ' , -5 byjustmix- I A f Vx'1 ing new iLt.! V I Poi.VF.1 I Worm Caps with his regular food. 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