RADIOACTIVE FALL OUT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 13

RADIOACTIVE FALL OUT

Report To Cancer Society

(Rec. 9 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 17. Evidence indicating that a Soviet atom bomb explosion in Siberia produced a fall out that showered the United States with radioactive material was reported today.

An investigator was reported to have found a mysterious hundredfold increase of iodine in the thyroid glands of cattle slaughtered in various parts of the Middle West some time after the Soviet blast, he said. The report was made by Dr. Jacob Furth, of the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation of Boston in presenting a paper before the American Association of Cancer Research in San Francisco.

He said the discovery was made by Dr. L. Van Middlesworth, of the University of Tennessee Medical School, who is making iodine tests in cattle thyroids. Dr. Furth mentioned no dates. Dr. Furth said that the number of people who had received cancer-gene-rating doses was “perhaps none, perhaps too many.” In any event, the fall out from a single bomb, whether it be from an ordinary atomic bomb or a super hydrogen bomb, was likely to be below the amount required to cause cancer, Dr. Furth said.

This would not n irily be the case of radiation M directly from a blast, as a .shed from the subsequent fall Dr. Furth said a b lu .mporary increase in iodine in the gland might not be harmful, because iodine was a poor cancer producer unless it was used in connexion with another chemical, thiouracil.

But when it was radioactive its rays could destroy thyroid gland cells if administered in massive amounts. The extent to which fall out generally had affected living systems accidentally still was a secret matter, Dr. Furth said, and not enough time had elapsed for the r Mation to start cancer.

Dr. Furth sugger . d that scientists and the military men consider ways of curbin'- fall Out.

The persistent addition qf radioactive substances to the air was likely to go on for a long time, and would increase greatly when smaller nation? developed atomic power. An international agreement to curb fall out might be feasible, he said, because it would not involve the controversial issue of inspection of atom producing facilities.