planned to fire fourteen shots to test new weapon designs and to find ways to reduce fallout from all weapons. Under the new criteria for testing on the continent, nine of the shots had yields of less than ten kilotons and were fired from towers 400 to 500 feet high. Over eight thousand military personnel participated in the series although troop maneuvers were held at only two shots. The Ammy retained sole responsi- “bility for the radiological safety of the troops for Teapot and all other continental series. The Commission had put far more resources into off-site monitoring but assigned sole responsibility fer the monitoring to the Public Health Service which had established fixed stations in small communities around the test site. The Public Health Service, henceforth, conducted most off-site monitoring and transformed the perception of fallout radiation from a problem in industrial safety to that of a general hazard to the public as a whole.*> As testing accelerated, more people became concerned about the health hazards of fallout. Consequently fallout became a national issue with scientists and laymen concerned about both the somatic ane genetic effects of fallout radiation. In response to the Commission's weapon effects statement the Federation of American Scientists proposed that a United Nations" commission assess the hazards of testing. At the Commission's request the’ National Academy of Sciences also launched a radiation study. Simltaneously in 1955 the Joint Committee on Atcmic Energy and the Senate armed Services Committee held hearings on problems related to the hazards of fallout.°° The Commission responded by . authorizing release scientific data about fallout. Commissioner Litby to On June 3, 1955, Libby ascressed the alumi of the University of Chicago and assured them that fallout 17 ri ’.