University Daily Kansan
Page 5
Radiation Estimates Disputed By AEC
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1963
WASHINGTON - (UPI) - The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has disputed recent estimates by non-government scientists that thousands of children have been exposed to excessive doses of radiation as a result of atomic tests in Nevada.
THE AEC's statements were contained in an eight-page letter sent to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, last week. During the committee hearings in August, questions were raised about the rate of fallout from the Nevada tests and its effects on children over the last twelve years.
While the AEC said that these estimates were "too high," the commission did acknowledge that 'a few' children in Utah last year may have received radiation doses to the thyroid from fallout iodine.
Dr. Harold A. Knapp, formerly of the AEC's division of biology and medicine, led the controversy last year when he submitted a paper suggesting that some children in the testing area might have received doses in the hundreds of roentgens.
The AEC defended its position, saying, "No evidence has been produced at the recent hearings which would indicate that the AEC has been careless of the public welfare in carrying out its weapons development responsibilities or has in any but exceptional situations exceeded in any given year the best radiation standards available to it from the national and international scientific bodies.
THE AEC SAID that the estimates used by its critics were "either statistically unreliable or cannot be supported by sound experimental measurements."
However, the statement added that "it may be that a few Utah infants received as much as seven to 14 rads (a radiation unit) to the thyroid gland in the summer of 1962."
The Commission said that guides set by the Federal Radiation Council (FFC), for normal peacetime operations, were exceeded only "by a few per cent" in Utah (Salt Lake City) and Alaska (Palmer).
THE COMMISSION said that there was "wide technological disagreement on the interpretation of the data and the magnitude of the problem," but said that the following steps had been taken:
P-t-P Can Use U.S. Students
Twenty-three students are needed in the KU People-to-People "English In Action" program to help foreign students learn English.
Miss Evelyn Beightel, Holton junior and program chairman, said 58 foreign students are interested in the program, but only 35 students have volunteered to teach.
Miss Frances Ingemann, professor of English and linguistic, told volunteers at the program's first meeting Monday night that English In Action provides each foreign student with an American student instructor who can answer questions about the language that often go unanswered in the classroom.
On Oct. 14 a meeting will be held in the Kansas Union where volunteers can examine their problems and successes, and receive suggestions on how they might do better.
Miss Ingemann said volunteers should meet the foreign students assigned to them, set up a weekly schedule of one hour lessons, and start teaching as soon as possible.
Miss Beightel said volunteers automatically become members of People-to-People and they will be eligible for full benefits of the program.
Journalism Senior Receives AP Award
Rose Ellen Osborne, Wichita senior, who served as a summer reporter for the Wichita Eagle and Beacon, won the August monthly feature contest of the Associated Press today.
The winning feature by the journalism senior, was "Wichita — People lose the dardnest things." City lost and found departments take on a "pawn shop atmosphere" with items left behind by travelers and commuters, the story explained.
Miss Osborne is an assistant managing editor of the Kansas.
- The Public Health Service has been requested to undertake studies in Utah-Nevada on thyroid cancer cases along with the present studies of leukemia in these states;
- One of the "prime missions" of the biology division at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, Calif., established last May was to investigate problems dealing directly or indirectly with radioiodine;
Monitoring surveillance programs in and around the Nevada test area have been expanded and during times of active operations will be increased still more.
Articles valued at more than $4.0 were taken from Memorial Stadium over the weekend.
Burglars Hit Stadium Police Investigating
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Arthur C. (Dutch) Lonborg, KU athletic director, reported that burglar entered the stadium Saturday night or Sunday morning by removing a gate from its hinges. They removed a voice drive valued at $390 from a speaker atop the new stadium addition.
The burglars also took a KU flag, valued at $50, a concession stand canopy worth $120 and an undetermined number of soft drinks.
The crime was discovered Monday morning by a maintenance crew cleaning the stadium. The flag had been ripped from its pole and the speaker had been torn apart and the voice drive removed.
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