The people's voice., 1959-06-19

IOIh ClICuII way Vi llle. It OWleI eSCl
mated they spend about third o.
their time at it.
2. Nuclear Information. CNI'.
monthly publication, was started las
fall to report new scientific facts ir
lay language. The March issue was
entitled "Strontium-90 and Common
Foods" 1t served to point out that
the public had heard much about
radioactivity in milk, but little. about
radioactivity in other foods. An ar
ticle told of the three-year survey
of wheat samples from Minnesota
and the Dakotas.
3. chi has sponsored two series
of five seminars each on radiation for
the scientific and medical commu-
nifty, and three public meetings at
which qualified people discussed the
consequences of radiation and fall
out.
A. At the request of the st. Louis
Dairy Council, chi scientists last
January issued a statement discuss
ing the potential hazard from stron-
tium-90 in milk (the local milk sup
ply has been showing the highest
strontium-90 concentration of 10
cities surveyed monthly by the United
State Public Health Service-and no.
body knows WHY. The statement said,
in effect, that the harm that might
result to children from milk contain
ing radioactive substances could not
yet be assayed with certainty. 1t en-
phasized that milk, as an essential
food, must not be eliminated from
the diet, and called for research on
ways to lower it's strontium-9O con-
tent.
5. The Baby Tooth Survey was
started last December as a ten-year
scientific project. Directed by DR..
Louise Reiss, an internist. the cam
paign has the cooperation of the |
School of Dentistry at both Wash
ington and ST. Louis universities. 1t
has also served as an excellent device
for calling attention to the more
dreadful implications of nuclear fall
put.
There was deep concern in st. Louis
bout nuclear-weapons testing for sew
eral years before chi was organized.
One of Washington University's most
widely known scientists, former Chan
,ellor Arthur H. Compton, Nobel
orize-winner and key figure in de-
the A-bomb in World War II,
las maintained friendly attitude
oward government atomic policies.
But younger men in the physics de-
,artment, headed by Edward U. Con-
lon, former us. Bureau of Standards
hief, were openly hostile. In the
pring of 1857, Linus Pauling of the
california Institute of Technology,
lso a Nobel Prize-winner, attacked
tom-bomb testing in an eloquent
ddress before Washington Univer- i,
ity's faculty and student body, warn
1g of the price that might have to be
aid by generations yet unborn. Later,
I Condon's office, Pauling drew up a !.
etition that called for immediate :
ction to halt testing by international =
greement.
lculty members were among the y
venty-seven signers of this peti- y
on; by the time Pauling presented q
to the UN Secretary General in y
anuary, 1858, more than 5000 scien- "
SITS from forty-three nations had :,
described. The scientific community y
, ST. Louis University, Catholic :
stitution, had share in the effort.
The formation Of chi followed
veral years of public needing of
e Acc by Fowler, Commoner, DR..
auer, T. Alexander Pond of Wash
gton University's physics depart
ent, and others. Some were horri-
ed at the attacks made on Adlai
evenson when he tried to debate
e fallout question in the 1856 Pres
entail campaign.
st. Louis women, an enlightened
ID militant breed, got into the con-
ct early. A pioneer group, calling /
elf ewes Against Atoms," headed a
Mrs. Thomas B. Sherman, wife of t
POST-DISPATCH editor, took t
md against testing. However, the s
VI traces it's origin directly to a t
.eting which took place in March of t
It year at the apartment of Mrs. |
orge Gellhorn, tireless and effec- t.
e worker for civic causes in city,
tie and nation for sixty years. Now M