“the most recent information.
Immediately after reading your
statement, I sent you a copy of a speech which I gave re-
cently regarding what we know from scientific studies on fallout radiation and its effects, JI am enclosing with this
letter a copy of a paper which I am presenting on April 26
before the American Physical Society.
I hope these documents
will be of use to you.
They demonstrate that an intensive
effort has been made to calculate on theoretical grounds,
and to determine from sample collections, the actual levels
of radioactivity in the soil, in water, in food products,
and in human bodies as a result of weapons tests.
If you have gained the impression that United States
official statements do not take into account the possible
hazard from internal radiation -- and I fear from your statement that you have -— I hasten to assure you that this is not
the case.
Government statements have dealt extensively with
this matter.
It has likewise been considered at length in a
report. prepared by scores of eminent scientists for the
National Academy of Sciences, and in England by the British
Medical Research Countil, both reports appearing in June of
last year.
Particularly since the summer of 1953, the Atomic
Energy Commission has conducted an intensive study of worldwide fallout which has revealed most of the information now
available on this subject.
These studies have included
analysis of soil, plants, foods and other materials from
many parts of the world.
The United States Government has
furnished this information without reserve to the United
Nations Scientific Committee on Atomic Radiation, which was
established at the recommendation of the United States and
which, has studied data provided by other countries.
Although there are some differences in the findings
of scientists in this country and abroad, there is general
agreement upon the approximate magnitude of the fallout and
the rate at which it is descending from the stratosphere.
Perhars there is less agreement about the magnitude of the
echysiological effects which can be expected to resuit from
fallout radiation.
Nevertheless, it is very generally agreed,
among those who have studied the question, that the radiation
exposures from fallout are very much smaller than those which
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