SUPPLIES OF RADIUM

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1930, Page 3

SUPPLIES OF RADIUM

TREATMENT IN NEW ZEALAND. EXPERT’S ADVICE SOUGHT. In order to decide in what quantity and what form further'.radium should be obtained for New Zealand, the services of Dr. A. Burrows, radium adviser to the Health Department of Australia, are being sought. ‘ Prior to his Australian appointment Dr. Burrows had a distinguished career at the Manchester Radium Institute. On his advice, and after consultation with the local medical .committee, radium centres were established in all the principal cities, of Australia. Provision was made for the thorough' and co-ordinated investigation of all eases of cancer attending these centres. The original Can-cer-Advisory Committee recommended that the Cohimonwealth should purchase 10 grammes of radium, six grammes of which were to be prepared in the forms recommended by Dr. Burrows, and the remaining four grammes for research, mass treatment and special purposes. The magnitude of this undertaking can be gauged from the fact that the cost of the radium alone represents £120,000, It is agreed that in the four principal cities of New Zealand the supply of radium is defective, either in quantity or in form. There is, in fact, a similar shortage of radium in England. The King gave for the purchase of radium almost the whole of the very large sum which he received from the nation as a thanks offering on Ins recovery from his illness. It is in deciding in what quantity and in what form further radiuiii should be obtained that the advice o| such a distinguished expert as Dr. Burrows would be of great value.