ATTACHMENT 3 Letters following the 1953 conference showing that the AEC attempted to measure Sr-90 through the sampling of baby bones from throughout the world **October 16, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Ms. Gertrude Steel **October 26, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Dr. Shields Warren **October 26, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to "Daddy" **October 27, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Ms. Gertrude Steel **November 4, 1953 letter from Raymond A. Dudley to Robert A. Dudley **November 10, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Raymond A. Dudley **November 10, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Dr. Edward W. Wilder **December 9, 1953 letter from Robert A. Dudley to Dr. James K. Scott **December 30, 1953 letter from John C. Bugher, M.D. to Dr. Andrew J. Warren **December 30, 1953 letter to Dr. Andrew J. Warren October 16, 1953 Miss Gertrude Steel C/o Dr. Willard F. Libby Professor of Chemistry Rm. 444, Research Institutes Building University of Chicago Chicago 37, Illinois Dear Miss Steel: There are several matters which I would like to bring to the attention of you and Dr. Libby. Perhaps you can sort out these items which should go on to Dr. Libby. I believe I told you I was asking Dr. Shields Warren in Boston if he could augment our collection of bones in Boston. I recently received a reply from him stating: "I have arranged with Dr. Farber at the Children's Hospital here to get some samples of infant bones for you, and we are arranging for a pooled sample of approximately 1 kg." Would you prefer that the samples not be pooled? If so, I will leave it to you to write Dr. Warren to that effect. I have just spoken with Dr. Solomon on the phone. He says he can quite appreciably increase his collection of bones if he is not required to process them further than asking. I said I was sure you people would be glad to do all the chemistry yourselves. We are now planning to go ahead with foreign bone collections on these lines: We believe the most fruitful approach may be through personal contacts with foreign doctors. Dr. Bugher sees possibilities in his connections with the Rockefeller Foundation. I have good connections in India and perhaps certain other countries. Beyond this, we suspect that pathologists, such as Dr. Farber in Boston and Dr. Potter in Chicago, would have contacts, at least in the more advanced countries. I will get in touch with Dr. Farber about this and will leave it to you to make arrangements with Dr. Potter. Dr. Bugher still wishes that the initial security specifications be maintained, we are therefore making our collections under these conditions: The stated purpose of the collection is to be for a survey of the natural Ra burden of human bones. This is a problem of genuine scientific interest which has already been investigated at considerable length in this country and Germany, as you know. One of the chief purposes of the previous investigations has been to estimate whether or not natural Ra levels are high enough to account for the rate of incidence of bone cancer. While it now appears that this is not the case, there are still enough uncertainties regarding threshold dose for injury, in a large population, to provide a plausible explanation for further surveys. We do [ILLEGIBLE] into analyzing these samples for Ra, so our story is true [ILLEGIBLE] it goes. As for the emphasis on infants, we can say that such samples are easy to obtain here, and that we would like to keep our foreign collections comparable. 1 In order to keep the AEC out of the picture where possible, we intend to have the samples shipped directly to you. (We won't say, of course, that you yourselves will make the Ra measurements.) It might even be desirable to have you send out all requests, though I would still be prepared to do all the work except for providing the signature. Dr. Alexander just phoned me this morning to say that he has completed his milk collection in both Utah and the Chicago area and that everything went very well. You should be receiving those samples, already dehydrated, in about a week. These milk samples, together with the samples of alfalfa which the corresponding cows were eating and the soil on which the alfalfa was growing, should give a good detailed picture of the route of entry, and amount, of the material of interest in milk. The soil and alfalfa from Turkey have just arrived. The chemists in the Agriculture Department who are to process the soil samples are now set up, and they will be able to send you the leachates soon. I believe they will first send you pre-1945 material, whose analysis will indicate whether their processing techniques are clean. Dr. Alexander suggested I remind you that alfalfa contains a large amount of potassium. One sample suggestion from the New York people is human milk. Eisenbud and Harley are going to try it in New York. What do you think of the idea for Chicago? It may even be sold commercially. Please let us know of anything we can do at this end to help the work along. Sincerely, Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine 2 October 26, 1953 Dr. Shields Warren Cancer Research Institute New England Hospital 194 Pilgrim Road Boston 15, Massachusetts Dear Dr. Warren: We are now starting to make provision for a collection of foreign bones, pretty much on the lines you suggested, and I would like to keep you informed of the steps we take. Also, I need a little help again. We have decided to make the actual collection on an unclassified basis, although the real purpose will of course remain secret. The stated purpose of the collection is for a world-wide survey of the quantity of radium in humans. We do expect to make radium analyses on at least some of the samples, so our story is merely incomplete, not false. Our plans for the collection now include these sources: (1) The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. We have spoken with General DeCoursey and he has been quite encouraging. (2) Mission hospitals. It happens that my father has good contacts with a number of these in India, and I am starting with him. I am enclosing for you a copy of a letter I just wrote him, so that you will be familiar with the line we intend to take in asking for samples. (3) Foreign contacts of American pathologists. We will first approach Dr. Potter in Chicago and Dr. Farber in Boston. The help I need is this: I do not know how much you have told Dr. Farber about the chief purpose of the collection; therefore, I am afraid to approach him with a story on the foreign collections. Perhaps it would be best if you would speak with him again about the foreign samples, telling a story not in conflict with the one which we are using in our contacts. If you prefer that I write him directly, I would of course be glad to do so after finding out how much he knows already. Sincerely yours, Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine RAD:clh BMBP Enclosure: Dudley Ltr., as above 10/26/53 BMBP:RAD October 26, 1953 Mr. Raymond A. Dudley A.B.C.F.M. 14 Beacon St. Boston, Mass. Dear Daddy: I'm writing this letter in the official way since it's on a business matter and I want the copies filed according to our regular procedure. Our Division of Biology and Medicine is interested in a problem on which I thought you might be able to give us some help. The problem is concerned with the amount of radium present in the skeletons of ordinary individuals who have not had any special contact with radium preparations. It is known that everyone contains a small amount of radium since it is present in minute quantities all over the earth's surface. Chemically it is similar to calcium, so that a part of the amount ingested is laid down with the calcium in the bone. Our Division is interested in the quantities of radium in "unexposed" people for several reasons. For one thing, radium contained in large enough quantities in the skeleton is known to produce bone cancer. Dr. Evans at M.I.T., for example, has done a lot of work on the measurement of radium in occupationally exposed individuals, and along with others has proved its cancer inducing properties. No one knows for certain the minimum amount which is harmful, and some people have suggested that even the naturally occurring quantities might give rise to a few cases of bone cancer in a large population. A number of measurements have already been made in this country, under AEC contract, on the radium content of normal individuals. The results suggest that the hazard should be rather small. However, other measurements have already been performed, for example in Germany, indicating a much higher level of naturally occurring skeletal radium. On a world-wide basis, the data available at present are pretty slim. Another reason for our interest, even if cancer induction be unimportant, is simply to find out what is the normal radiation level to which man is exposed. One of our Division's big problems is setting human tolerance levels for radiation, a matter which will become increasingly important if, for example, atomic energy is turned over to private industry. If only from a public relations point of view, it is important to know what levels of activity already form a part of our natural environment. BMBP:RAD October 27, 1953 Miss Gertrude Steel C/o Dr. Willard F. Libby Professor of Chemistry Rm. 444, Research Institutes Building University of Chicago Chicago 37, Illinois Dear Miss Steel: I'm enclosing a copy of the one open letter I've written so far on our foreign bone collection. This happens to be to my father who has good contacts in India, and perhaps elsewhere. The third and fourth paragraphs explain why we want the bones. We have also been in touch with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology here in Washington. They have a world-wide network for collecting specimens of pathological interest and I think will be very cooperative in finding samples for our purposes. I've written to Dr. Shields Warren asking him to see if Dr. Farber can get samples through his foreign contacts. I'm also sending you a copy of the report by Menzel of the Bureau of Plant Industry, USDA, Beltsville, Maryland. Please return it to me as soon as you are finished with it. I think you will find this report very interesting. It is the results of this sort of experiment which make Dr. Alexander so insistent on relating activity uptake to the Ca availability in the soil. You can see that a single sample of, say, cheese from Switzerland, ultimately produced from an unknown soil, might leave us uncertain within a factor of ten or more as to the amount of fallout in the area where it was produced. A second sample, produced on a field of different Ca availability a few miles away, might suggest a very different level of hazard. We expect our alfalfa samples to vary in activity by as much as a factor of 10, even though all come form the relatively restricted area of the Chicago milkshed. I'll make sure you get all the data on the alfalfa and milk before too long. From memory, I can say this much: The samples come in pairs, 1-2, 3-4, etc. The two halves of a pair were taken from similar types of soil within a couple of miles of each other. Ca availability was lowest for 11-12, next lowest for 1-2, and highest for 9-10. Most of the Chicago milk would come from the intermediate range of Ca availability. Sincerely yours, Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine RAD:mlh BMBP Encls:CC ltr dtd 10/26/53 Dudley Report, as above 10/27/53 November 4, 1953 Mr. Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine Atomic Energy Commission Washington 25, D. C. Dear Bob: I have talked with Dr. Hale Cook of our Marathi Mission and he gives me the following opinion: "The important problem in obtaining foreign bone samples would not be in procuring stillborn babies but would be treating them so that they would be able to go through the mail. I should judge that if there were some acceptable means of removing the flesh so that only a skeleton would be sent it would be a real help. Otherwise it would be necessary to send the body in formalin or 70% denatured alcohol. This would mean a fragile container which might well break enroute as well as the possibility of confusion between the radio activity in the preservative and the radio activity in the body. Certainly it should be possible to obtain from quite a number of mission hospitals one or two stillborn skeletons without upsetting the postal authorities or curious individuals." I am thinking that you might write to Dr. Edward W. Wilder, Christian Medical Association, Nelson Square, Nagpur, asking him for places where he thinks this could be worked out easily. If you are going to write to him you should give him the information Dr. Cook specifies above so that he will know just how you expect him to go about it. Please send me answers to Dr. Cook's questions and I will confer with him here. Sincerely yours, Raymond A. Dudley RAD/WAY BMBP:RAD November 10, 1953 Mr. Raymond A. Dudley A.B.C.F.E. 14 Beacon St. Boston, Massachusetts Dear Daddy: Thanks for the information in your letter of November 4 on bone collections. I've been looking into shipping methods and have some pretty good information on the subject. Much of it has come from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology which collects pathological specimens from all over the world. We would suggest the following preparation and shipping procedures: As much as possible of the flesh should be removed from the bones by mechanical means (e.g., scraping). They should then be fixed for a few days in a minimum amount of formalin or alcohol. We emphasize "minimum amount" because of the possibility of radium contamination in the fixative, as Dr. Cook suggested; for our purposes, fixation needn't be very thorough. The fixed bones can then be sealed in plastic bags, which we will supply, along with 5 or 10 cc of the fixative. These bags are pretty tough, are easily and effectively sealed with a hot iron, and appear to be the ideal container. The bags should then be put into a can, or even carefully packed in a cardboard carton or wood box, and shipped. We expect to be able to work our arrangements with the State Department for the samples to be carried in the diplomatic pouch; in this case, the hospitals should send them to the American Embassy. We will know more about this soon. Expenses in the sample preparation and shipment shouldn't be very serious and in any case, we will be able to reimburse the hospitals later. I am writing to Dr. Wilder, telling him all that I have told you, and asking him to suggest some hospitals for us to contact. Depending on what you and he suggest, we can write directly to those hospitals ourselves, or work through either of you. Isn't Dr. Wilder due to return to the United States soon? Is there any possibility of getting similar bone samples from the Near East or South Africa? Yours, Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine RAD:clh DMBP Dudley 11/10/53 BMBP:RAD November 10, 1953 Dr. Edward W. Wilder Christian Medical Association Nelson Square Hagpur [ILLEGIBLE] Pradesh Dear Dr. Wilder: I have just been in touch with my father on a matter of considerable interest to our office, and he has suggested that I contact you. The Division of Biology and Medicine of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (to which I am now attached) has for several years been sponsoring research on the question of the amount of radium in human bones. There are several reasons for our interest in this question. For one thing, radium contained in large enough quantities in the skeleton is known to produce bone cancer as you no doubt are aware. No one knows for certain the minimum amount which is harmful, and some people have suggested that even the very small naturally occurring quantities might give rise to a few cases of bone cancer in a large population. The measurements made thus far in the United States indicate that the natural level of skeletal radium is so low as to constitute little hazard. However, other measurements have been performed, for example in Germany, showing a much higher quantity of radium in human bones. On a world wide basis, the data available at present are pretty slim. Another reason for our interest in bone radium, even if cancer induction be unimportant, is simply to find out what is the normal amount of radiation to which man is exposed. One of our Division's big problems is setting human tolerance levels for radiation, a matter which will become increasingly important with the general expansion of atomic energy activities. If only from a public relations point of view, it is important to know what levels of activity already form a part of our natural environment. We have thought that a valuable addition to our program would be made by the inclusion of some foreign samples. However, we have not yet been very successful in obtaining such samples. I've been wondering if it might be possible to obtain specimens from various mission hospitals. Our requirements are these: We want bones of young children or stillborn babies, since stillborns are easiest to obtain here and it's a good idea to keep the number of variables as small as possible in the foreign collections. We prefer the full stillborn skeleton, or in young children, anything up to 1/2 to 1 lb. of bone. However, smaller samples would be acceptable as we can pool them if necessary. The age and area of residence should be reported. We could BMBP:RAD December 9, 1953 Dr. James K. Scott Atomic Energy Project University of Rochester P.O. Box 287 Station 3 Rochester 20, New York Dear Dr. Scott: This letter will explain in a little more detail than I was able to do over the phone our interest in obtaining infant skeletons from Japan. The Division of Biology and Medicine is engaged in a project to evaluate the long range radiological hazard which might result from the large scale use of atomic weapons. Studies have shown that an important feature of this hazard is the incorporation of the fission product Sr90 into human bones. In order to help in the evaluation of the hazard, we are providing for the direct measurement of the world-wide Sr90 distribution which has resulted from the 40 or 50 nuclear detonations in the last few years. One type of sample on which we are concentrating is the bones of infants, either stillborn or up to a year or two of age. We have found that stillborn bones are easy to obtain in the United States, and are trying to extend our collection to foreign countries. It appeared that the ABCC would be a logical contact in Japan. We could use perhaps 6 or 8 skeletons from that area. It has been decided, for various reasons including public and international relations, to classify this project SECRET for the present. Hence, the unclassified description of our purpose in obtaining these bones is for Ra analyses. We actually are providing for the measurement of Ra as well as Sr90 in many or all of the samples, so that the Ra story is merely incomplete, not false. The complete purpose I have described for you alone. From the type of measurement which we expect to make, you can understand our specifications on the bone processing before shipment. The primary consideration is the prevention of radioactive contamination, by either Sr90 or Ra. Because of the universal presence of small quantities of Sr90, the less processing the better. Complete removal of flesh and complete preservation are not essential. I am sure, however, that the use of a small quantity of formalin preservative would not cause appreciable contamination. For shipment, I presume the ABCC has standard procedures. We could supply plastic bags if this would help. Furthermore, if transshipment of the skeletons to the United States is complicated, we could arrange for our Embassy in Japan to help. The destination would be our office in Washington. When you get to Japan, we would be pleased if you could let us know how the prospects for collection and shipment of such bone samples look, and when we might expect to receive them. Needless to say, if we can be of any help at this and we would be glad to take whatever steps you suggest. I hope this rather unusual request will not give you too much trouble. Any such bones you can get us will be very interesting in our project. Sincerely, Robert A. Dudley Biophysics Branch Division of Biology and Medicine cc C. I. Dunhan DISTRIBUTION: 1&2A addresses 3A C. L. Dunham 4,5,6A B&M Files 7,8A - Biophysics Branch BMBP DUDLEY;mlh 12/9/53 HM:JCB December 30, 1953 Dr. Andrew J. Warren, Director Division of Medicine and Public Health The Rockefeller Foundation 49 West 49th Street New York 20, New York Dear Andrew: Herewith I am enclosing a letter to you which might be used to explain the program of bone collections in which we are engaged and which I would like to see extended to certain points in South America. We have arrangements made for obtaining a number of specimens in India and in South Africa through various medical missions. No arrangements have been made for collections in South America. I would like to obtain specimens from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Chile or Bolivia. Material can be shipped by commercial airline, air freight collect, in accordance with the enclosed specimen letter. Specimens of soil and plant material which comprise the other classes of interest are being obtained by the Department of Agriculture through the usual international services maintained in the area of soil chemistry. Eventually all of these analyses will be brought together to give us a complete picture of the transfer of elements from soil to man. While the principal determination is the amount of natural radium, the analyses will also go into the matters of the total calcium, the ionic state and availability of the calcium in soils, the constancy of the natural calcium-strontium ratio, and various other ratios which may be related to calcium, etc. This information will eventually be published, together with the much more extensive studies being conducted in the United States. If you find that it is consonant with Foundation policy to ask the representatives in these areas mentioned to obtain the specimens needed, I would appreciate very much your using the accompanying explanatory letter in any way in which you may see fit. Sincerely yours, John C. Baugher, M.D. Director Division of Biology and Medicine Enclosures HM:JCB December 30, 1953 Dr. Andrew J. Warren, Director Division of Medicine and Public Health The Rockefeller Foundation 49 West 49th Street New York 20, New York Dear Dr. Warren: The Division of Biology and Medicine of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission has for several years been sponsoring research on the question of the amount of radium in human bones. There are several reasons for our interest in this question. For one thing, radium contained in large enough quantities in the skeleton is known to produce bone cancer, as you no doubt are aware. No one knows for certain the minimum amount which is harmful, and some people have suggested that even the very small naturally occurring quantities might give rise to a few cases of bone cancer in a large population. The measurements made thus far in the United States indicate that the natural level of skeletal radium is so low as to constitute little hazard. However, other measurements have been performed, for example in Germany, showing a much higher quantity of radium in human bones. On a world-wide basis, the data available at present are pretty slim. Another reason for our interest in bone radium, even if cancer induction be unimportant, is simply to find out what is the normal amount of radiation to which man is exposed. One of our Division's big problems is setting human tolerance levels for radiation, a matter which will become increasingly important with the general expansion of atomic energy activities. If only from a public relations point of view, it is important to know what levels of activity already form a part of our natural environment. To determine the quantitative relationships between the naturally acquired radium and the environment, it is necessary to have analytical data on the radium context in the soils of the various regions and the amount of such element that may occur in the typical food supply. Such specimen material is being collected in the usual way through. STATUS VERIFIED Sgd. Wilbur Strause 9/9/80