Radioactivity Of World Steady

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31206, 2 November 1966, Page 17

Radioactivity Of World Steady

(NZ.P.A.-Reuter — Copyright) NEW YORK, November 1. Mankind need not fear for the moment that radioactivity is tightening its deadly grip on the world.

A United Nations report published yesterday gives the assurance that existing radioactivity, whether produced by nature or by man-made explosions, remains about the same level as two years ago.

Nuclear tests carried out by China in 1964, 1965, and 1966 have not contributed significantly to the average radioactive dosage around the world, the report says. Previous nuclear explosions had released a much greater quantity of radiation, it said—apparently referring to United States, Russian and British detonations before the partial nuclear test ban treaty in 1963.

The report was completed before the recent series of French tests in the Pacific. It warned that atomic tests

still presented a greater source of contamination than industrial, medical and research organisations using nuclear materials.

These accounted for "a neg. ligible fraction of the doses received by human populations from artificial sources,” according to the report. The report was drawn up by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which issued its last document two years ago.

People in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Alaska, Canada, the Scandinavian countries and Russia were exposed to larger than normal doses of natural radiation through eating caribou and reindeer meat.

These animals, the report explained, fed on lichens nourished by atmospheric dust. Their meat consequently contained high concentrations of radio-active particles.