EFFECT OF ATOM RADIATION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27695, 27 June 1955, Page 14

EFFECT OF ATOM RADIATION

British Scientists At Variance (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright t LONDON, June 24. Reliable evidence had disputed theories that an increased number of defective children were born in the years immediately after exposure to atomic radiation, the “Atomic Scientists' Journal” reported today. Howtists’ Journal” reported yesterday. However, the magazine, the official organ of the Atomic Scientists’ Association, warned against complacency. “The number of irradiated survivors from the Japanese atomic explosions is small, compared with the corresponding number for' thermo-nuclcar explosions. Furthermore, the genetic damage appears during tens, or perhaps hundreds, of generations, after the exposure.” Even if the number of people affected in any one generation was small, the cumulative effect over the centuries could be very considerable. On the evidence of a Japanese doctor, Dr. Moriyama, of Hiroshima, it was still too early to be sute of the effects of bombing on the unborn, since changes might appear even in the third or fourth generation. The article also reveals disagreement among three leading British atomic scientists on the advisability of continued hydrogen bomb tests. Professor Kathleen Lonsdale, Chemistry Professor at University College, London, wrote: “I cannot understand why .scientists have not spoken out plainly long ago against further experimentation. . . The tests, she said, involved hideous cruelty to animals, birds and fish which would not be allowed in a research laboratory in any civilised community.

Professor H. W. B. Kinner, Professor of Physics at Liverpool University, said it was obviously impossible that Britain or any other nation could develop an H-bomb without tests. Sir George Thomson, of Cambridge University, said that existing H-bombs appeared to be sufficiently destructive for all practical purposes.It was not certain that the prevention of full-scale explosions would greatly hinder further development.