Evening star., 1952-02-20
Atom Experiments Raise
Hope for Doomed EIms
'voccines' Moy Be Produced
In Bottle Against Fungus
By Thomos R. Henry

Vs0I US stOOU&SO
In Bottle Against Fungus
By Thomos R. Henry
Americas elm trees, now apparently
doomed. are given forlorn hope from
experiments just reported by the Atomic
Energy Commission.
The fatal disease of the American
elm is a fungus. Preliminary expert
ments at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory show that when o some
what similar organism which attacks
tomatoes Is subjected to intensive radia-
t1on, new strains were produced which
were much less virulent than the parent
moulds.
So far as tomatoes were concerned
the results were rather discouraging.
Radiation Of plants themselves was
found impractical because they were
much more sensitive than the fungi.
The rather harmless new strains, how
ever, offered the hope Of producing
plant vaccines" for the elms.
The particular fungus involved was
found to be almost twice as sensitive
to the radiation as the tomato blight
organism. The possibility now held
forth is that the trees can be inoculated
with q relatively harmless strain which
will protect them from attacks by the
virulent ones. The elm fungus now is
being subjected to intensive radiation
at Brookhaven.s
Fight Deadly Oak wilt.
Atomic isotopes, the commissions re-
port points out, also are Offering some
hope for fighting the deadly oak wilt
which now is endemic throughout the
Middle West. It is due to a fungus
that grows in the sapwood of oaks and
stops the exchange Of nutrients between
roots and leaves. It acts like plugged
up circulation system in an animal. All
the leaves blacken and fall. The disease
is spreading rapidly and recent air sur
veyS have shown it now has penetrated
into Kentucky and Arkansas.
Radioactive tracers now are showing
that the disease is spread from root to
root due to spontaneous CRAFTS which
take place underground and that one
means OF combating the tree malady
will be to thin oak groves so that roots
will not come in easy contact.
Still unexplained is the fact that
sometimes the disease apparently makes
jumps Of several hundred miles.
Even more mysterious is the pole
blight OF pines through the northern
Rocky Mountain region. Radioactive
isotopes are being used to learn how
some pathological organism is interfer-
ing with the nutrition of the trees, since
the disease seems fundamentally mall
nutrition phenomenon.
Scarlet poison of the atomic world Is
the rare element strontium.
It's radioactive forms, produced in the
dlslntegration Of uranium atoms in
atomic-energy products, are potentially
the most biologically hazardous of the
fission products" the Atomic Energy
Commission has just reported.
The hazard, according to the report,
comes from the fact that of all the ex-
ploding atoms only strontium is taken up
and stored by plants so that a heavy
concentration can be built up. II these
plants were eaten by cows it would ap-
pear in dangerous amounts in the milk.
Strontium has natural affinity for
bone. It would interfere seriously with
the lood-forming elements of children
who drank the milk. 1t also could be
taken up directly from leafy vegetables,
such as spinach.
It is probably inevitable that some Of
the radioactive products of uranium flS-
sion will get into the atmosphere and
into water. All except strontium, Atomic
Energy Commission experiments show.
offer very little danger to human well
fare. Some are short-lived. Others are
cumstances Is anybody likely to get q
dangerous dose. Strontium is unique in
the fact that it is stored by plants in very
high concentrations. The radioactive
form is long-lived, with a half-life Of
about rs years. This means that half Of
any amount originally present will have
disintegrated in this period.
Tests With Other Products.
Tests also have been carried, out with
the other common f1ssion products -
forms Of the rare elements yttrium,
casium, columbium, ruthenium, tellurf-
um. lanthanum and cerium. None Of
these have shown tendency to be con-
centrated by plants.
Strontium is a little-known element
quite similar to the abundant calcium
but it has been of very little use except
for giving an exceptionally vivid scarlet
flame in signal rockets and fireworks.
Fission products, according to the re.
port, present an Industrial prob
lem everywhere that nuclear reactors
are at work. This has been recognized
since the early days of the Manhattan
CT ion a.
bomb.
Studies of all aspects Of the utilization
of these products by living things are
being carried out at the University Of
California.