The people's voice., 1959-06-19
Srontum- 80 In St Louis :.
$4,000 Baby Teeth

Louis is Cne fOugh equivalent OF SIX
Marine battalions.
From the start, chi has had strong
moral and religious overtones, sharp
! ened by kind of cheerful 'Tlet's look
at the facts iconoclasm. Like Mrs.
Gellhorn, the Commoners- and
his wife, Gloria, committee vice pres
ident-are members of the st. Louis
Ethical Society. So is Alexander S.
Langsdorf, dean emeritus of Wash
ington University's School of Engi-
neering and chi president. Fowler
and DR.. Bauer are Quakers. At the
initial meeting in the Gellhorn apart
ment, in addition to Commoner and
Fowler, was the Rev. Ralph C. Adele,
then head of the Metropolitan Church
Federation. They decided to form
permanent body.
The next step was a meeting of
about thirty people which took place
several weeks later at the home of
Mrs. Ernest w. Stix, another civic
leader. Attending were university
people, members of social-action
groups, priests, ministers, housewives.
The sequel was the founders meet
ing, April 21, 1858.
While not all the chi prime NOV
ers took position against testing,
the major figures did; and it is quite
apparent that the group as a whole
is motivated by deep mis- -givings as
to the biological and moral implica-
tions of the weapons race. Neverthe-
less, the decision was to take no of
ficial stand and to concentrate in
stead on information.
Scientists with. chi have served |
as a Greek chorus to amplify, COM
ment on, question, explain and criti-
cize the thunderous pronunciamen-
tos of the protagonists in Washing
ton. Each new goblet of official in
formation is analyzed and put into
context. Research papers are seized
on, dissected and translated into lay
language. The press is kept alerted
to it's duty. Any inaccuracies. omis-
sions or glossings-over in official
statements are promptly challenged
The Baby Tooth Survey has given
the organization an objective that
should hold it together for some
time. The idea was suggested last
summer by DR.. Schwartz, who cited
an article in the British scientific '
publication NATURE written by DIR. '
Herman M. Kalckar, a biochemist
at Johns Hopkins University. chi {
became the first group anywhere, t
apparently, to initiate a large collec- {
ion of "milk" teeth to be analyzed
or radioactivity. 1
1t was characteristic of the COM
nittee that it planned the project
Before any announcement
vas made, it's scope and purpose
lad the approval of the deans of
10Th the local schools of dentistry;
nd DIR. John T. Bird, assistant dean
f Washington University's school,
ad agreed to head a group of dem
lists to examine and classify the
eeth. DR.. E. S. Khalifah, editor of
he JOURNAL of the Missouri State
)ental Association, gave his enthu-
iastic support. With the help of
Iartin Quigley, a public-relations W
dviser who is on the chi board, T
ne announcement, when it came, Fl
as deliberately designed to soft S
edal the 'human interest" angle of al
he story and to stress sober scientific m
bjectives. 1t said in part:
The Importance of an immediate h;
collection of deciduous, or baby o,
teeth lies in the fact that teeth now a,
being shed by children represent &C
an irreplaceable source of scientific be
about the absorption of OF
in the human body. oil
Beginning about ten years ago, de
from nuclear-test fall ha
'ut began to reach the earth and to or
ontaminate human food. lit
Deciduous teeth now being shed at
we're formed from the minerals st,
'resent in food eaten by mothers ali
nd infants during the period 1948 on
o 1953-the first few years of the ar
allout era-and therefore repre- ha
ent invaluable baseline informa- cls
ion with which analysis of later at
eeth and bones can be compared. of
Tnless a collection of deciduous an
eeth is started Immediately, scien- DIR,