Dr, Harley had obtained in Norway indicated that practically all
of the activity was about six months old,
Further, that the
radiostrontium content of the samples was estimated to be
approximately 1/100th of maximum permissible level for drinking
water (U, S, Bureau of Standards Handbook 52).
In other words,
that water from the melted snow did not contain a harmful amount
of radioactivity and that the water supply in Oslo contained only
1/50th of that amount of radioactivity whith was present in the
melted snow water,
Since direct Strontium-90 analysis inherently requires time,
due to the necessity for allowing the isotope to decay, it was
not until the latter part of June that more definitive data could
be obtained,
It has now been found that the radiostrontium
content of the most active snow sample
is 1/300th of the maximum
permissible level for industrial exposure and 1/30th of that
recommended for the population as a whole.
On June 20, 1956, Dr, Charles Dunham, Director of the
Division of Blology and Medicine, Atomic Energy Commission,
and
Dr, John Harley arrived in Oslo to discuss the findings of the
AEC report with the Norwegian Defense Establishment.
It appeared
that whereas the Norwegian Defense Establishment was not greatly
exercised over the finding of the Strontium-90 in the snow,
and
in the Oslo drinking water, the Minister of Health, Dr. Evang,
and his adviser, Dr, Ekkers, were inclined to make a great deal
of the possible hazard,
Dr, Ekkers is considered a reputable
radiologist, and is the Director of the Radium Hospital, although
there is some question of his political leanings,
The latter was
also said to be irked by the National Academy of Sciences and the
British Medical Research Council reports which indicated that
medical x-rays
constituted the most important man-made source of
radiation exposure to the population as a whole,
- 25 ~
Enclosure IV