Health physics: its development, successes, failures, and eccentricities

Health Physics began at the University of Chicago as a science and profession during the early World War II years. It was initiated by Drs. A.H. Compton and R.S. Stone, director and associate director, respectively, of the early Plutonium Project cryptically called the Metallurgical Laboratory. It was to be a science and a profession to protect radiation workers and members of the public from exposure to ionizing radiation. It succeeded to some extent in this objective but during the past decade in the United States, it has reverted into an organization primarily to protect the nuclear industry from liability resulting from radiation exposure.

Evaluation of delayed effects of ionizing radiation: an historical perspective

It is widely assumed that after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki there were no lasting effects of the acute injuries (which included extensive damage to blood forming tissues by the radiation) or the massively high death rate (which was caused by environmental effects of the blast as well as personal injuries). However, close inspection of the dose response curves for non-cancer deaths has shown that this could be a false impression caused by one effect of marrow aplasia being confused with leukemia (defective erythropoiesis) and a second effect being confused with early selection in favor of general fitness (defective immune responses). Possible consequences of such confusion (for cancer risk coefficients) are discussed in relation to what is known about late effects of prenatal x-rays and occupational exposures to radiation.

Physicians, reformers and occupational disease: the discovery of radium poisoning

Teenage girls and young women, whose job it was to apply luminous paint containing radium to watches during World War I, were among the first industrial radiation poisoning victims in the United States. This paper recounts both the story of how their afflictions became "recognized" occupational diseases and of the tangled web of governmental-industrial-academic collusion (largely based on industrial funding of research and experts) which delayed this recognition. It shows how these industrial-academic arrangements led to the establishment of the major academic training programs in occupational medical and industrial hygiene still in existence. Using historical sources, this study provides evidence of moral lapses by medical researchers, including directly lying to the victims, withholding data on the true extent of illness and radiation contamination and of distorting evidence. The pivotal role of the Consumers League and of Dr. Alice Hamilton in establishing the truth of the radium dial painting poisonings is discussed.

The radiologist as guinea pig: radiation hazards to man as demonstrated in early radiologists, and their patients

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Yale and the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission

This is a description, based largely on personal discussions, of the contributions of men from the Yale University School of Medicine to the saga of the immediate and long-term studies on the medical effects of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They played key roles in the immediate studies of bomb effects, in the creation of long-term studies of delayed effects, and in elevating the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission after 1955 to a position of excellence in its studies and relations with the Japanese. The accumulation of the information presented in this paper derives from research for the preparation of the history of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. In 1975, the commission was passed to Japanese leadership as the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.

Three mile island. The silent disaster

From Wednesday, March 28, 1979, to Wednesday, April 4, 1979, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was in a state of near-panic in response to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. The Dauphin County Office of Emergency Preparedness quickly attempted to develop a plan to evacuate not only the population of an area 20 miles in radius from the plant but the short-term and long-term care medical facilities as well. For medical evacuation, a system of classification of patients was defined and matched to needed transportation. Furthermore, a critical coordinating link was established with the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania to identify and categorize relocation beds in receiving hospitals far from the incident site in the event of evacuation. Just as this incident was unusual, so too were the planning activities unique since they were never before conceived or accomplished.

[Aspects of the history of x-ray therapy in Austria (author's transl)]

Even before the turn of the century, the dermatologist Leopold Freund tried to treat a hairy naevus on the back of a child with the rays Roentgen had discovered in 1895 when all known forms of therapy had failed. Loss of hair, as desired, resulted therein. In order to prove that electric currents were not the effective agent, Freund abducted them and treated another part of the naevus pigmentosus piliferus, however, for a longer period in order to compensate for the supposed loss of energy. An ulcer resulted. A number of renowned researchers doubted the biological effect of the X-rays. Freund also began to doubt his original opinion and later even attacked his very own discovery. Only the findings of Robert Kienböck, after having carefully examined them, let Freund accept his former opinion again. Guido Holzknecht, recognized as a pioneer of X-ray diagnosis even before the First World War, occupied himself successfully with X-ray therapy under the influence of Kienböck. He may be regarded as one of the world's first radiobiologists. Vincenz Czerny, of Austrian origin, and a pupil of Theodor Billroth, became a promotor of the X-ray therapy of malignant blastomas in Heidelberg. K. H. Kärcher, who has been head of the Department of Radiotherapy, Vienna University, for the past ten years is a graduate of this famous school.

The origins of the American Scientific debate over fallout hazards

The American scientific debate over fallout hazards during the 1950s was rooted in differing disciplinary, institutional, and political interests. These interests did not function independently, but rather were interconnected with one another. Scientists who expressed concern about fallout hazards were more likely to be from a biological disciplme, especially genetics; to have an academic position; to distrust US Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss's role In the Oppenheimer case; and to support a partial or total ban on nuclear weapons testing. Scientists who argued that fallout hazards were small or insignificant were more likely to be from disciplines in the physical or medical sciences; to have institutional affiliations with the AEC; and to support continued nuclear weapons testing. This case study suggests that sociological analyses of scientific controversies need to take into account interrelations between interest groups.