Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-05-10
FuIIout in Perspective

Now that the radiation subcommit-
tee Of the Joint Congressional Atomic
Committee has concluded It's hearings
on the problem Of fallout, peoples every
where have reason TO feel treasured.
For the hearings, although they have
left a number OF questions unresolved,
have established one fact Of prime i'm
portance-namely, that the experts best
qualified TO pass judgment on the mat
ter, the scientists who have studied 1t
with the greatest care. share the view
that alarmists have grossly exaggerated
the dangers involved in past nuclear
testing.
The most emphatic and clearest tes-
timony on this point has come from the
distinguished General Advisory Commit
tee Of the Atomic Energy Commission.
After a thoroughgoing review, under
taken "in order to place the hazard of
fallout in proper perspective" the GAO
has fatty declared that all the tests
to date (ours, Britain's and Russia's
combined) have exposed human beings
around the world to an amount of total
body external radiation"-past, present
and future-that is (a) less than 5per
cent of the estimated average exposure
of the American public to medical
X-rays and (b) less than per cent as
much as the average exposure to coSmic
rays and other background radiation,
including that emitted by the bricks Of
ones home. Further, the GAGS state
ment includes the following instructive
observations, among others:
1t is interesting to note that human
beings have lived for many generations
in parts Of the world which have five
times or more the background radiation
normal to the United States, or more
than 100 times the average amount Of
radiation from fallout in the United
States.
In regard to internal effects of stron-
tium-90 due to ingestion, the amount of
strontium-90 which has been found in
food and water is less of hazard than
the amount Of radium normally present
in public drinking water supply in certain
places in the United States, and in public
use for many decades.
In making these and similar points,
the GAO has not sought to give the
impression that fallout, especially that
which might result from future large
scale testing, is thing of no conSe-
quence. Nevertheless, while not pooh
pooling what could be the danger in
herent in an unlimited continuation of
such testing, it has plainly indicated
that the problem, as it exists today, is
not nearly so serious as some CaSSan-
dras would have the world believe. AS
for tomorrow, the Aces General Advi-
sorry Committee-leaving aside the queS-
ton of military nuclear experiments
has emphasized that our Public Health
Service and comparable agencies will
have to play an expanding regula-
tory role to maintain safe standards in
connection with the increasing civilian
uses of radioisotopes, atomic reactorS
and X-rayS, which are still the most
important source of radiation hazards.
Meanwhile, as the GAO has declared,
There is real need for clear, simple
exposition of the facts of fallout in
media widely available to the public"
Unfortunately, these media have not
yet presented such an exposition on a
continuing or coherent basis, largely
because the experts themselves have
been discussing the problem in terms
too technical to be related to everyday
life. The latest congressional hearings
on the subject, together with lucid state
mentS like the GAGS, constitute good
example of the kind of educational eff
fort that is needed to diSpel not only
complacency, but unreasoning fears as
well.