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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
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state of knowledge of blast biology, determined the priorities of needs for data, and was to
make recommendations as to the field and laboratory experiments required to obtain these
data. A similar meeting of the Thermal Biology Task Unit was held in Washington, D. C., in
September under the chairmanship of Dr. Herman Pearse of the University of Rochester.
Radiation Monitoring Instruments
Plans were made for the evaluation of two prototype instruments combining a portable
transistor radio and a radiation dose rate meter that have been developed for civilian use.
Twenty-five instruments of each type will be distributed to AEC laboratories and selected
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field personnel for test and comment.
EXPANSION OF RESEARCH
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A comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the biology and medicine research program
was completed during the quarter. This ‘review was conducted in accordance with recommendations made during the 1957 hearings of the Joint Committee on “The Nature of Radioactive
Fallout and Its Effects on Man” that the AEC’s biomedical program be examined as to possible
need for increased research effort in order to accelerate resolution of the problems of the
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biological hazards of radiation and radioactive fallout. The testimony at the hearings brought
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out that there was a well balanced AEC-supported research program in biology and medicine
and that any proposed increase in research should not be at the expense of long-term basic
research by a diversion of effort to a multitude of short-lived programmatic research projects.
As a result of this review the Commission approved, for planning purposes, a 5-year plan
for continued expansion of research in biology and medicine, emphasizing particularly the biological hazards of radiation associated with peaceful and military uses of atomic energy.
BERYLLIUM SURVEYS
Because of the health hazards associated with beryllium handling, the Health and Safety
Laboratory of the New York Operations Office (HASL) is continually studying beryllium operations and hazards in connection with AEC contractor activities in this field, as a part of its
environmental health services and studies.
Surveys of occupational exposure to beryllium dust at the new Beryllium Corporation plant
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at Hazelton, Pennsylvania, were conducted in January and May 1958. The May survey showed
that all production employees were receiving five or more times the maximum acceptable concentration. It was decided to shut down the refinery until major changes in equipment and operations could be made.
A similar survey of the new Brush Beryllium Company refinery at Elmore, Ohio, con-
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ducted during the plant shakedown period, showed a large number of the 108 persons studied
were being exposed to excessive concentrations of beryllium. HASL made recommendations
for improving dust control. It. was decided that air concentrations were not sufficiently hazardous to warrant closing the plant, but that extensive plant modifications were needed to
ensure satisfactory operations.
In July representatives of HASL and the Chicago Operations Office reviewed decontamination of the AEC beryllium production plant at Luckey, Ohio. Good progress had been made in
decontamination since the plant closed down in December 1957, but cleanup probably will not
be completed before May 1959. HASL will continue to advise the contractor on decontamination
procedures and will help perform periodic tests of certain equipment and buildings which have
been decontaminated.
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