LONG-RANGE PROGRAMS
Biology and Medicine Division -Biomedical Program--Livermore
Berkeley;
The principal goal of the Biology and Medical program of the
Berkeley Laboratory has been to explore the effects of irradiation on biological systems and to learn about the basic events
through which radiation causes biological change.
of biological systems against the detrimental
tion was an integral part of the endeavor.
The protection
effects of
irradia-
Biomedical projects included the study of irradiations on
tumor growth and the problems cf fallout.
An important result of
the studies of strontium-90 metabolism and turnover in human
bone was the establishment of a quantitative estimate of fallout
radioactivity from the Soviet test series of March-April 1958.
After determining West Coast contaminants from fallout, measurement of radioactivity in foodstuffs led to estimates that contaMinants were within limits of tolerance.
The measurements also
provided a guide to exposure from short-lived radioactivity associated with prompt
fallout.*
Biology and Medicine focused study primarily on the effect of
accumulated radioactive substances in the body and their deposit
within specific tissues. These studies provided a basis for
establishing levels of maximum permissible exposure.
Investiga-
tions were made of the metabolism and pathological effects in
laboratory animals of radioactive isotopes of strontium, calciun,
radium,
lathanide and actinide
of massive doses,
groups of elements;
including mortality;
acute effects
long-term effects of rela-
tively low dosage, including life-span shortening and elimination
time of tracers, in an effort to correlate damage with absorbed
radiation.
.
The availability of the 184 synchrocyclotron, the heavy-ion
linear accelerator (HILAC), the Bevatron, and the linear pool
reactor at Berkeley in the late 1950s and the 1960s offered
instrumentation for investigating the biological effects of irradiations on the blood-forming system and of anemias produced by
radiation and by disease.
ation whole-body counters
Biology and Medicine placed
rounded by radiation detectors) to provide a means
ing the amount of radioactivity in the human body.
Dosimetry Office,
in oper-
(in which the person is entirely sur-
assisted by Biology and Medicine,
provide film dosimetry and radiation monitoring
and safety of Laboratory staff.
for determinThe Personnel
continued to
for the health
*
More recently the Laboratory conducted sampling
Francisco Bay region after the fallout at Chernobyll.
in the
San