Publie concern generated by stories in magazines and newspapers
resulted in the holding of hearings by the Special Subcommittee on
Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy of the Congress of
the United States.
The hearings, with the title "The Nature of Radio-
active Fallout and Its Effects on Man," were published as three volumes
totaling 2,216 printed pages.
Unlike the hearings of some Congressional
Committess concerning activities of agencies of the U.S. Government,
these were generally "harmonious," as one writer put it, marked by only
one or two sharp exchanges of opinion between members of Congress and
those testifying before the Subcommittee.
Most importantly, perhaps
was the public airing of many facts about nuclear weapons and fallout.
Of special interest to this report, was the discussion of the effects of
doses of radiation, particularly as to whether or not there is a "threshold",
or minimum amount of exposure which can cause damage below which there is
no effect, or if, indeed, the effects of radiation are "linear", meaning
that any radiation exposure, no matter how small a dose, has a damaging
effect.
Many
scientists and experts, both from the Atomic Energy Commission
and from independent universities and institutes gave testimony supporting
both theories.
Those who proposed that the fallout from then current
testing was harmless posited that evidence indicated that there was a
threshold dose for most somatic mutations, and that there was no evidence
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