Boon or Bane

The debate about pesticides* (boon or bane?) is still running on. In 1965, for example, Wheeler McMillen, long a writer on agricultural questions, published a book entitled. Bugs or People. The book was subtitled "a reasoned answer to opponents of pesticides," notably those who believed in the thesis of Silent Spring.

In 1965 also the U. S. Public Health Department established an "Office of Pesticides" to evaluate claims for and against pesticides and to investigate the hazards of specific pesticides. Earlier the Department of Agriculture alone was responsible for registration of pesticides. Now they must also be cleared by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (Office of Pesticides) and by the De

Pesticides currently in use may also be challenged. In 1966, for example, the U. S. Department of Agriculture canceled approval of the widely used insecticides, aldrin and dieldrin, for use on a number of vegetable, grain, and forage crops. The Department stated that the use of these insecticides could result in illegal residues on crops.

Radiation H~Zardsatomic Energy

Mankind has been exposed to ionizing radiation ever since the very first stage of its evolutionary development. It worried no one, because no one knew about it. The first inkling of the existence of ionizing radiation and its production by what we now call atomic energy came in that "miracle decade" of modern science, 1895 to 1905. Then William Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays, Henri Becquerel first observed natural radioactivity in the image of a key on a wrapped-up photographic plate inadvertently left in a drawer with a piece of uranium, and Pierre and Marie Curie isolated and discovered radium. Madame Curie correctly interpreted that its powerful radioactivity and gradual disintegration were being caused by an intra atomic breakdown.

Atomic energy is produced when atoms break up. When atomic energy is kept under control, it is readily possible to protect against its hazards. When it is uncontrolled and reaches critically high levels, it may produce acute or delayed radiation sickbed, which appears in many forms.

Human beings on the planet Earth are being constantly bombarded by atomic energy from natural sources, such as cosmic rays and naturally occurring radium and other radioactive substances in the earth's crust. It is estimated that this amounts to about 3 roentgens (the standard measure of radiation) in 30 years.

Medical X-Ray Risks

Since 1900 the people of civilized countries have been exposed to a second major source of ionizing radiation namely, medical and dental X-rays. The biological dangers of X-ray and radium were not appreciated at first by the early workers with these energy sources and a goodly number of physicians and scientists in the early 1900's died as "martyrs to radiation" used in examining and treating patients.

Medical necessity requires that X-ray pictures be taken to save life and limb and protect against ravages of disease. In fact more than 50 million diagnostic X-ray films or fluoroscopic examinations for medical purposes are now made annually in the United States. Dentists take twice as many, more than 100 million, X-ray pictures of teeth a year. The important thing is that all this X-raying be done with the highest possible safety standards.

It is now possible, however, to protect against a substantial part of the radiation hazards of medical and dental X-rays. This can be done, for example, by getting rid of all obsolete and badly working X-ray equipment, by using well-established protective devices such as lead shielding and new ones like aluminum filters and cone adaptors, by "faster" X-ray film, by periodic checking of all X-ray equipment, and by avoiding needless X-ray examinations and treatment.