RAIN OF DEATH FOR GENERATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 5

RAIN OF DEATH FOR GENERATION

ATOM WAR SPECTRE DANGER TO PEOPLE FOOD CONTAMINATION scientists' theory (12 a.m.) NEW YORK, Mar. 24. Radio - active particles contaminating’ buildings, crops and water would rain death slowly upon the earth for a generation after an atomic war, said Dr. E, Stafford Warren, America’s highest authority on radiologi-

cal safety, in an address at the University of California. Radio-active particles from the first atom bomb explosion in New Mexico in July, 1945, were carried round the world several times and were still detectable in the air. As the aftermath of the atom bomb explosion, radio-active forms of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and other _ elements had become part of living things, such as plants and animals. After an atomic war, food and water would be contaminated and persons who consumed them would risk death through the destruction of their blood cells. The human race would be in danger of dying out because of sterility caused by radio-active particles. Dr. Warren said he believed the United States could lose 100,000,000 of its people in an atom bomb attack and survive as a nation provided its resources did not become contaminated.