o
0
r O
Greatest Radiation Mtfe
By JOSEPH L. MYLER
WASHINGTON tUPJ) Scien
tists expect most of the long-
lasting radioactive poison hurled
- into the high atmosphere by this
month's Soviet atomic tests to set
tle on the earth in a four-month
period starting in February.
They will not be surprised if
next spring's fallout sets a new
record. The present mark was set
by the Russians in 1959.
What Dr. Lester Machta of the
Weather Bureau calls "the great
est fallout ever recorded" oc
curred in March, April, May, and
' June of 1959. It came from the
Soviet tests of October, 1958.
This year's Russian tests start
ed a month earlier and continued
at a pace which threatened to
surpass the 1959 rate.
. . What humanity will suffer from
this radioactive contamination im
f s posed upon it by Russia is not
' known. Science so far has been
' unable to detect or measure
whatever damage is done to man
by low radiation doses such as
' those normally associated w ith
worldwide test fallout.
This radiation is small to the
disappearing point compared with
the instantaneous radiation from
an exploding bomb or that from
quickly descending "local fallout."
Local fallout in wartime could
produce, a few miles down wir.d!
from the explosion, radiation ex
posures amounting in an hour to
' thousands of times the dosage re
ceived from test fallout over a
period of years.
The Soviet test fallout in the
spring of 1959 increased by about
' 50 per cent the amount of stron-tium-90
deposited on the United
States by all previous American,
Russian, and British tests.
The 1961 Russian tests, if they
prove comparable to those of Oc
tober, 1958, could build up the
strontium-90 contamination of
the United States by 30 per cent
above present levels.
Strontium-90 is one of the most
menacing products ot atomic fis
sion. It is long-lived. It gets into
plants and thence into milk and
human bones. Very young chil-
i- dren, whose diet is mainly milk
and whose bones are growing rap-
idly, absorb more strontium-90
than adults.
It is known that in large
amounts large by comparison
with those resulting from test fall
out strontium-90 can cause bone
cancer in animals. It may also
cause leukemia.
Another long-lasting product of
bomb tests, cesium-137, is more
widely distributed in the body
than strontium and so can sub-
ject the reproductive organs to
radiation.
There may or may not be a
dose level below which strontium
. 90 can do no bodily harm. Scien
tists are not agreed whether such
a threshold exists.
But most biologists believe no
amount of radiation is too small
to cause some genetic damage if
it hits the cells of heredity. From
the standpoint of man as a spe
cies, this is the worst menace of
., radiation because genetic damage,
is bequeathed to future genera
lions.
When nuclear weapons are test
ed, some of their radioactive
. products are deposited into the
troposphere, the so-called "weath
er zone. Above the troposphere, i
at altitudes ranging from 30,000 to;
55,000 feet, depending on the lati
tude, is a vast region of relative
calm known as the stratosphere.
Small bombs tested above
ground throw all of their fission
products into the troposphere. It
stays there a matter of weeks.
Tropospheric contamination from
.. the Soviet tests has been detected
- all around the Northern Hemi
' sphere.
' But it has been so slight, ae-
not to pose any public health!
threat.
The great contaminators are the
"dirty" H-bombs, with their f is-1
sion triggers and jackets, which
spew the bulk of their poison into;
the stratosphere. I
Stratospheric "residence time"
for radioactive material from big
bomb tests ranges from under a
year to perhaps 10 years, depend-
ing on the latitude and altitude of
the explosion.
Fallout of major proportions
from past explosions had all but
:. disappeared from the atmosphere
until the Russians resumed testing
on Sept. 1.
Once radioactive debris gets
down from the stratosphere into
the troposphere, fallout tends to
be heaviest in regions where rain
" fall is heaviest.
For this reason next spring's
'fallout from the current Soviet
' i tests is expected to be about twice
as hcaw in a large part of the
. . .United States as it is in Russia
except for comparatively rainy
outheastern Siberia.
According to Atomic Energy'
Commission figures published be-j
lore tile new Soviet series, Ameri
cans annually receive 25 times
more radiation exposure to the
reproductive organs from natural
sources ( radiation from the earth
arid sky) than they get from bomb
tests. The medical radiation dose
i X-rays and the like i has been
more than 40 times fallout expo
sure.
The fallout dose to these organs!
has been about 125 times smaller
thau the maximum exposure from
all sources recommended by the1
Federal Radiation Council as the
permissible limit for tile general,
public.
Dr. Charles L. Dunham of the
AEC's biology and medicine divi
sion came up in 1959 with some
damage figures based on what he
said was "the quite unsubstanti
ated hypothesis that radiation ef
fects are directly proportional to
0
o o o (J o
f &ict?& February
Thursday, September 21, IK1
O Pag7-A
total dose irrespective of the dose
rale."
Tests up to then, calculated ea
this basis, might product wr tbr
next 70 years in tlw United Sum
"some 504 greater or Wsmt trage
dies per year including grow
genetic defects miscarriages,
etc. as well as leukemia and
bone cancer cases," he said.
But according to the same hy
pothesis, Dunham said, "unneces
sary mtchcat X-ray exposures
ould hr causing annually for the
nit years some 3.0M greater
or letter tragedies of genetic ori
gin."
Such calculations, however com
forting or frightening, do not take
into account the "hot spots." Ever
since nuclear testing started in a
big way, it has become apparent
that some communities from time
to time get far more than aver
age exposure.
Alter a Nevada test series in
1953, for example, Troy. N.Y
briefly was exposed to radiation
levels about 1.000 times normal.
CaDr. C.oE. Everett
Osteopathic Physician and
Surgeon
Has 'started practice at
Merrill, Oregon
Office Hours 9 till 12 and I till 5 Mon. thru Frl.
Sat. and Sun. by oppointment and emergency.
Office
Phone 798-5210
Residence
Phone 798-5848
L8
11
Qxut-to-Gmt,
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