RADIATION
It would be helpful
to locate many tooth donors willing to fill out
a two-page questionnaire on their medical histories since birth.
(below)
Jay M. Gould and Ernest Sternglass
In 1958, Barry Commoner and Harold Rosenthal studied radioactivity levels in baby teeth of St. Louis children. They found that the radioactive strontium levels in the baby teeth of children born from 1945 to 1965 had risen 100-fold. Over the same period, the U.S. Public Health Service had found an equally alarming rise in the percentage of underweight live births and of childhood cancer. These studies helped persuade President John F. Kennedy to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union to end above-ground testing of atomic bombs in 1963.
Recently Washington University gave our group some 85,000 baby teeth left over from the Commoner-Rosenthal study. The children whose baby teeth we now have -- now adults in their 40s and 50s -- can help make further advances in the scientific understanding of the later effects of exposure at birth to nuclear fallout. For example, a recent study by the National Cancer Institute of variations in fallout from the Nevada Test site found that, while in general the most important factors were proximity and rainfall levels, geographic exposure to fallout was governed in any given year by chance. This suggests that pregnant women who ingested food or milk that came from an area that was a radiological "hot spot" would be far more likely to bear children with extremely high levels of Sr90 in their baby teeth, most of which would be transmitted to the developing fetus during pregnancy.
In fact this is what we have learned from our current "Tooth Fairy" study of Sr90 levels in the baby teeth of nearly 3,000 children born since 1980. As with the St. Louis study, we found average annual levels as high as had been found in the late 1950s, and a rising trend that was correlated with a corresponding rising trend of underweight live births and childhood cancer. We also found that the annual average levels were heavily influenced by a relatively small number of children whose teeth had extremely high levels that were often more than 10 times higher than the annual average.
On the whole, this is good news because it means that most children may be relatively unaffected by exposure to nuclear fallout. The bad news is that among the 80 million children born during the bomb test years 1945 to 1965, the fetal development of a small percentage may have been badly damaged, so they would be particularly vulnerable to physical and mental problems. This is why it would be helpful to locate many St Louis tooth donors willing to fill out a two-page questionnaire on their medical histories since birth.
We have received more than 2,000 messages from such donors. To check whether we have their teeth, we need a person's birth date, maiden name and mother's name. Along with this information, about 2 or 3 percent have added some truly heartbreaking stories of premature cancer and other illnesses, which underlines the importance of our being able to measure the Sr90 levels in their teeth. Back in 1958, Rosenthal did not have the modern equipment we now have, capable of measuring the very tiny levels of Sr90 in a single tooth. Consequently he secured his annual averages by batching many hundreds or more teeth each year, thus losing information on the range of variation among individual teeth.
If we could find several thousand St. Louis donors whose teeth we can measure individually, we may be able to ascertain the medical significance of having a high Sr90 level for any child born anywhere and at any time. Such information would be especially important for baby boomers, who will be making the key political decisions about our continued reliance on nuclear technology. Two European baby boomer leaders -- Tony Blair in England and Gerhardt Schroeder in Germany -- have already decided to phase out nuclear reactors in favor of solar energy sources.
Jay M. Gould is director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, New York. ( www.radiation.org ). He can be contacted at 302 West 86 St., New York, NY, 10024.
source: http://radiation.org/stlouisop_ed.html 7sep03
If not already clean, wash the teeth and let them dry.
Wrap each tooth in paper and cushion with tissue or something similar.
Print out the form below, fill it out, and send it with the teeth to Radiation and Public Health PO Box 60 Unionville NY 10988 Do not worry if you do not have all the information requested
There is some information we need in all cases: Where the mother lived when carrying the child. The child's birth date. Where the child lived the first year after birth.
If you can supply us with this information, don't worry about the rest if you do not know the answers.
Important: If you have a tooth or teeth from more than one child, please fill out a separate form for each child and clearly mark which teeth came from which child. We cannot use teeth from more than one child when they are mixed together.
Envelopes Would you like preprinted envelopes? For envelopes with the teeth
form pre-printed on them, email us with your name, address, and phone, and how
many envelopes you need. Click on the icon to the left to send
us email (rphp@oldbooks.net). Or call our
toll-free number for more envelopes: 1-800-582-3716
Email Joe Mangano For more than 10 envelopes and Group Networking, contact our National Coordinator Joseph Mangano. (odiejoe@aol.com)
Please fill out the following form and send it with your baby teeth to:
Radiation and Public Health
PO Box 60
Unionville NY 10988
Thanks for helping.
Mother: ______________________________________________________________ First Last Phone: ____________________________________ Email ____________________ Area Code Phone Number Address: _____________________________________________________________ Street ______________________________________________________________________ City State County Zip Child's name:_________________________________________________________ First Last Birth date:___________________________ Birthweight:___________________ Month Day Year Pounds Ounces Sex Female___ Male___ Residence when mother was pregnant: ______________________________________________________________________ City State County Zip Residence where child was born: ______________________________________________________________________ City State County Zip Residence during first year of life: ______________________________________________________________________ City State County Zip Mother's date of birth:_______________________________________________ Month Day Year Mother's place of birth: ______________________________________________________________________ City State County Zip Does the child have a long-term health problem? Yes ___ No ___ If the answer is yes, please explain (all answers will be kept confidential) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Water source: (from well, municipal water, bottled water, or?): ______________________________________________________________________source: http://www.radiation.org/envelope.html 7sep03
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