Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
American Friends Service Committee — Part 32
Page 91
91 / 169
4
. danger cancels out another, Fallout is an added
dose and onc not ured in our diagnosis or treat-
ment or on the prescription of a doctor. It is ad-
minisicred to all, however unwilling, including
citizens of countries carrying on no atomic activi-
ties, so that they have “radiation without repre-
sentation” and are consequently indignant.
Furthermore, there are different kinds of radi-
ation. When the X-ray machine is turned off no
radioactive substance pollutes the room or the
patient. On the other hand, strontium-90 stays
in one’s bonesyear after year bombarding them
and the blood cells, and cesium-137 in one’s
muscles bombard similarly.
Despite the Atomic Energy Commission’s well-
publicized reassurances, its document on “The
Biological Hazard to Man of Carbon-14 from Nu-
clear Weapons” issued in September, 1958, con-
tains this grim estimate of the damage to kumnan-
ity of carbon-14 created by weapons tests already
held: 100,000 cases of gross physical or mental
defects and 1,280,000 cases of embryonic, infant
and childhood deaths. Carbon-14 is produced by
“clean” as well as dirty bombs, and it has a half-
life of 8,000 years. It is just one of several bomb-
test products that cause damage to the present and
future generations.
Feto Facts Are Available
Although some scientific estimates, such as
those just given, have heen made, predictions
cannot be exact, and few facts are available. This
is partly because the harm caused by fallout is
not immediately observable—the damage can be
detected only years after it has been done. Bul, as
Walter Schneir, news editor of MD) Newsmaga-
zine, wrote in his article on “Serontium-90 In U.S,
Children” (The Nation, April 25, 1959} ; “Out of
the welter of conflicting statements and opinions
one irrefutable fact emerges: people throughout
the world will suffer death and illness from the
nuclear tests conducted to daie—and the effects of
these tests will still be felt by mankind 10,009
years from now.” Even AEC spokesmen admit
this,
Another cause of the dearth of facts is lack of
research. Billions of our tax dollars have gane
into AEC research, but practically all of it has
been directed toward weapons production, Gover-
nor Freeman of Minnesota said he was shocked to
Jearn that the study of wheat samples from Min-
nesota was the first of its kind anywhere in the
country, and the Atomic Energy Commission
agreed to test the samples only after stale spokes-
Reveal the original PDF page, then click a word to highlight the OCR text.
Community corrections
No user corrections yet.
Comments
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Continue Exploring
Agency Collection
Explore This Archive Cluster
Broad Topic Hub
Topic Hub
federal bureau
letter
Related subtopics
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic