THE MEDICAL ASPECTS OF NUCLEAR RADIATION

e [Music] for an informal review of nuclear radiations and their effect on humans a sunlet pool with all the trimming serves as a suitable launching spot offering an approach that is sufficiently scientific and [Music] SE a sunbather exposes herself to an assortment of radiations some such as the solar rays are heaven sent others are nuclear the same as those which come from an atomic burst and they're bombarding her from all sides from the sky in the form of cosmic rays from radon a material in the atmosphere from radioactive uranium found in the water which he just left and in the earth on which he Now lies they aren't powerful enough to bother our they're less of a hazard than the Rays of the sun which if carelessly taken can become too much of a good thing with all radiations nuclear and otherwise it depends on the duration and intensity of the exposure nuclear radiations have their novel way of causing injury but it's neither mysterious nor inescapable radioactivity as represented by the ball causes electrons to be ejected from their atom it's an offensive move based on ionization ionization disrupts the structure of atoms of which all living matter is composed an atom is part of a molecule and molecules are parts of the cell the cell is the structural and functional unit of all living matter a tiny machine with a basic job to do cell operating with thousands of other cells of various shapes and Performing special chores make up tissues and organs organs are departments in a complex Factory the human body which is engaged in the manufacturer of an important product light an atom then seems unimportant and infinitesimal a tiny Cog on a small wheel in a miniature machine which if multiplied millions of times forms the going concern that is you but if enough of the cogs are broken through ionizing radiation the gears grind the machines falter and stop the factory shuts down each of the four kinds of missiles discharged by radioactive substances has its own ballistic Behavior to observe them attacking the body they must be symbolized far out of proportion magnified millions of times gamma rays are the most penetrating but the least ionizing not so penetrating but more ionizing are neutrons which are not rays but particles neutrons and gamma rays are external dangers able to shoot into the human body easily alpha particles cannot penetrate the skin beta particles can cause surface Burns if the assault is sufficiently concentrated and sustained both are able to gain entry through the eating and breathing of radioactive matter or via breaks in the skin once inside the so-called Hot Stuff takes up resonance in various parts of the body giving off highly ionizing Alpha and beta particles and how long does this Radio rat race go on the body will succeed in C casting off some of this material but it is a long slow process there's no effective method for dislar the stuff no known way of neutralizing or destroying it there is no method of hastening its half life which is the time required for 50% of the substance to Decay with some substances it is a matter of less than a second but if you had some plutonium inside you you wouldn't make any plans to celebrate the event plutonium's half life is 24,000 years the various kinds of cells which make up the parts of the body differ in their vulnerability to radiations most sensitive are lymph cells such as those found in the tonsils next is bone marrow which manufactures red and white blood cells then the sex cells followed by tendons and cartilage as in the nose muscles and nerves the toughest of all in general cells which reproduce rapidly and whose efficient functioning depends on that ability are most effective radiation halts the reproduction which is a simple process of one cell dividing into two this destructiveness has been harnessed and put to work in the radium treatment of cancer which consists of cells that have gone wild and multiplied too fast the manifestations of radiation in the body are many and range from slight to severe loss of hair nausea bleeding inability of the body to resist other ailments and make its own repairs these are some of them and they may be climaxed by the ultimate symptom death itself however complete recovery is more probable the illness runs a course from causes to effects much of the mystery surrounding it is maintained by the general public which is determined to regard radioactivity as potent and irresistible as the evil spirits of the Indians this can be partly explained by man's fear of dangers he cannot sense a fear fan into widespread misunderstanding and by Sensational speculation on what radiations can do radioactivity is dangerous but to say that it's deadly period is as misleading as giving a flat answer to the question how high is up the radium treated D of your watch for instance is harmless nuclear aminations became a threat when man isolated such hot stuff as radium and worked intimately with it broadening its scientific medical and Industrial use a threat however that has been effectively controlled through observing caution not even the atomic bomb Burse man's boldest Venture in releasing Atomic power is the DD of humanity from which There Is No Escape for it has its known limits calling for preventive measures as clearcut as those doctors lay down in telling people how to ward off infectious diseases the first and obvious one is be someplace else when it happens distance lends considerable enchantment to an a burst but under some conditions that's a hard rule to follow Atomic Warfare for instance might allow little choice in the matter so if you can't stay away from it you must stay with it as safely as possible and properly protected proper protection is based on what we know about the penetration of gamma rays and neutrons the ability of a shielding material to stop them is expressed in half thickness the thickness necessary to reduce the radiation's intensity one half in dealing with gamma rays the half thickness of a very dense material like steel is 1 in that of concrete less dense is 3 in while 12 in of wood which is quite for is required against neutrons the density of a material is not so important as its ability to slow down and capture the particles concrete earth and water furnish good shielding the best shelters then against the gamma and neutron bombardment releas Leed by an atomic explosion a strong reinforced structures that prpt bombardment at the High aerial burst is severe but short life since it is carried up into the stratosphere it's safe to go into the area under the explosion about 2 minutes after it occurs not so with an underwater blast however and presumably in the event of underground and surface explosions the area is contaminated with radioactive material which gives off Alpha and beta particles and gamma rays however the material which emits Alpha and beta must be taken into the body through the mouth and nose or skin breaks before they can carry on with their injurious ionizing steps to prevent the perpetration of these inside jobs include eating only food which has been inspected and passed on guarding against breathing radioactive dust care in handling contaminated articles such as clothing washing them or disposing of them if badly contaminated Sol cleaning especially the hair and under the nails sound Medical Practice demands not only a knowledge of the way harmful agents operate but an accurate estimate of those agents radioactivity is detected by various instruments such as this Geer counter and pocket chamber they have as their unit of measurement the rkin or fractions thereof this dial is gr graduated in Renkin allowing for precise readings of contamination in persons and things it will tell how much radiation the wearer has received the human body's resistance to destructive agents and its recouping powers vary with individuals this man might recover quickly from a rattlesnake fight this one might succumb to a beasting aware of this range of vulnerability doctors have set extremely safe and low exposures such as 3/10 of a venin per week as the maximum gamma radiation dose for laboratory and industrial workers with radioactive materials they calculate that 300 to 500 times this much 150 or more renkins may bring out symptoms of sickness the median lethal dose which is the amount necessary to kill half the persons exposed is placed by most medical authorities at around 450 Rin received by the victim's entire body and within a short period of time thus it takes Mak a very special combination of circumstances to cause the death of a person by radiation a combination that's a remote possibility in ordinary work with radioactive materials and not nearly so frequent in Atomic Warfare as is commonly believed but suppose that despite preparedness and preventive measures one gets a dose sufficient to cause sickness what then is this the stock answer the unavoidable sequel or this most emphatically it's this radiation illness lends itself to treatment the treatment is symptomatic which means that doctors relieve the symptoms or effects rather than remove the cause to clarify when you take aspirin to get rid of a headache that's the symptomatic approach removal of an injured or infected member of the body is specific treatment a radiation patient is bolstered in all possible ways the body a remarkable self-repairing machine if given half a chance is assisted in overcoming the effects of ionization for example if the patient supply of red blood cells is down he's given a transfusion of whole blood if the count of white blood cells the policeman the anti-germ guards of the human system is so low he can't resist infection he gets penicillin medical researchers are constantly seeking to to supplement symptomatic with specific therapy the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in Nagasaki took the Japanese completely by surprise their medical facilities were pretty well knocked out nevertheless an impressive share of radiation patients recovered and it's estimated that good Medical Care might have reduced fatalities considerably the Japanese didn't have that kind of care yet the depths attributed to the bomb's radioactivity made up a small part of the total about 15% it is reasonably assumed though that many who were killed by the bomb's other destructive forces sustained radiation doses that would ultimately have proved fatal in short they were burned and beaten into Oblivion before they had a chance to die from radiation which puts the finger squarely upon one of the major fallacies in the public attitude toward Atomic weapons it's the fallacy of devoting 85% of one's worrying capacity to an agent that constitutes only about 15% of an atomic bomb's destroying potential and that's unsound doesn't fit if you must worry concentrate on the blast effect of an a bomb it's prompt and devastating it causes a gigantic rearrangement of things a complete change of scenery and means sudden death to those who chance to be in the way when it's happening don't forget the fires that follow consider the flash heat which changes the complexion of all that it strikes bear in mind always that blast and heat are an a bomb's most powerful weapons that their lethal range is greater and their effects much quicker than the radiation blast and heat are hazards that warrant concern but not panic because they aren't new or novel they're the same Forces of World War III's conventional bomes which some of you may have experienced and you did all right you're [Music] here as food for thought the possibility of Atomic Warfare and its relation to your well-being is understandably on your metal diet but in your thinking adopt the realistic viewpoint point of a man engaged in a gun battle his chief fear is not that he might come down with a case of lead poisoning but that he's apt to get an extra hole in his head some of the falsehood circulated about radiation effects are trivial but upsetting they're beamed right at one's self-esteem and will eventually result in a race of ball-headed people just imagine it imagine yourself with no hair they'll call you old skin head old Chrome Dome and that's not all radial activity will do it will enough exposure to radiation will cause loss of hair the treatment if you'd insist would be symptomatic a tupe but the condition would only be temporary your hair would come back same color same c a fear that is grossly built up in popular print is that radiation will cause impotence which is the mechanical inability of a man to fulfill his sexual role that fear won't stand examination another subject of misgivings is sterility a sterile man can carry out his sexual obligations physically but is unable to fertilize to reprod produce His Kind the estimated dose needed to bring about permanent stability exceeds the lethal dose so obviously stability by radiation would be just incidental a matter a dead man wouldn't worry about the public has been force fed grave suspicions that extensive use of atomic energy as in war might eventually result in an overabundance of freaks suitable for Sideshow exhibition we can start picking the freak possibilities apart by looking at a sperm cell the kind of cell that plays a leading part in reproduction these chromosomes contain the material through which such physical characteristics as color of hair and eyes are handed down from parent to offspring sometimes the chromosomes are broken up this upsets the heredity controlling material when the cell divides and the result may be a mutation A variation from the parent the occurs naturally and may also be brought about by radiation but radiations can't produce any new kinds of mutations they can only increase the natural rate is the increase enough to Stew about no we can't experiment along these lines with humans but we can observe the effect of radioactivity on mice and fruit flies which produce new generations so frequently that to study them for a short time is like reviewing a long fan of Mankind's history these are the probabilities and they aren't important enough to lose any sleepover besides a mutation can be a good variation an improvement over the barent if you be honest with yourself face the facts you'll probably realize that your principal worry ought to be that your Offspring will look just like you [Applause] oh [Music]