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RADIATION STANDARDS, INCLUDING FALLOUT
tive values that we are talking about.
ing toa layman.
A micromicrocurie meansnoth-
They don’t understand that this means a millionth
of a millionth of a curie. They further do not realize the somatic or
genetic effect, that the detection of either the somatic or genetic effect
when you are dealing in such small fractions of a curie has been
impossible to determine in our laboratories. Because they do not
realize that, the scare literature that is circulated has caused many
people to quit feeding milk to their children or in some instances to
quit feeding bread made from wheat in certain areas of the country.
I think it is very important that this be understood without exaggeration either upward or downward and in its true relation to its facts.
Dr. Dunuam. That is why I think this FRC report will be a very
helpful supplementto your proceedings.
Representatives Price, Dr. Dunham,in your statement you referred
to uptake in plants of accumulated strontium 90 in the soil. Does this
mean that strontium 90 continues to contaminate food long after the
fallout has stopped coming down?
Dr. Dunnam. Thatis right.
Representative Price. Is this true of cesium 137?
Dr. Dunnam. Muchless so because cesium tends to get bound in the
soil. The strontium stays much more readily available.
Representative Price. I think you said someone else would be in a
position to deal with these temporary heavy fallouts in different areas.
Dr. Dunya. That is right. You are talking about radioiodine?
Representative Price. Yes.
Dr. Dunnam. I believe somebody from the Public Health Service
is going to give the more recent data for the last few weeks on iodine
131 in the milk.
Representative Pricz. Does Argonne have a national monitoring
effort to determine the amount of fallout throughout the country?
Dr. Dunuam. Argonneitself has been monitoring fallout since
1952. They were the first group to actually measure and point up
the importance of short-lived gamma emitting activities as far as
the whole body exposure from fallout is concerned. They were able
to identify and measure the zirconium-niobium componentand bariumlanthanum. I think that material first appeared at the last hearings.
Representative Price. What do you mean by cesium 137 air concentration ?
Dr. Dunnam. Just how much passes by in the air but it doesn’t
necessarily get down in the ground or food unless the rain brings
it down.
Representative Price. Ina given area?
Dr. Donuam. Thatis right.
Representative Price. You speak of newer observations all indicating the hypothesis of the straight proportionality of biological effect. Whatare these newer observations?
Dr. DunHam. I might mention a few. I think first and perhaps
one of the most interesting is the fall off in the number of new cases
of leukemia in Japan among the surviving population. The straight
proportionality figures and estimates based on that assume that these
number of cases would continue. Similarly, the study in England of
the arthritis cases that got radiation therapy, there have been no new
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