Introduction to Health Volumes, PPR - 20, 21, 22 (Rough Draft)

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INTRODOCTIOB TO KEALTIi VOLUMES men the acientiat~became convinced that 8 chain rsactlng pile maa probabilffy, they gradually realised the eno d ty of the harardn t o health that would be involved, Many of them had friends or acqua&ataneea rho had been injured i n erpgrimentrl work with x-raps or radium, and nearly all were *warm of ths Bad fats of many of the workerr l n the radium dial The exact haearda to ba encatantered were not known, Bt gmnernl it war rwUsad that the npilen, where t h e chain reactfon took place, would be a IIOUTC. of f a s t and alm neutron8 in greater numbem per recond than could have been dreamed possible In earlhr periods. The uranium which had undergone fission would contain radioactive PlateAals with activities greater than 6nythiEg ever snuountered b h e radium induotry. material removed from such a *pilem for any reason would be extremely 8 C t i V 9 in producing alpha, beta or gamma mym. Sface the object of operating such a apilen wau to be the produetion of plutonium, and since the plutonium d d have to be separated by chemicalsuram fkom the extremely radioactivs eleraenb prodnaed e t the m e Wne, tha car- oat of ,$he oh dc rl procedure m8 recognlrted a8 a tremendotlsly hasardoum mdertaking. Since none of the steps of either the phyafcal or che~nicslprocedure were known, it war recognised that iopzclone m u s t be in the Planning Committee who could understand the language of the physicists, chedst.8 and engineers rho were pla d ng the coma e to be followed, and rho elso could understand the health problema involved, The need for such an understanding of the

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hmlth problem and of anticipating Arrther haaardr ua8 primarily recognisard by the scientists and their opinion was imm.dlate4 agreed to by the prime contractor^ the University of Chicag8, and by the contracting officer, originally the O.S.R.D. and later the U. S. Bnry. In response t o the need a health group -6 formed which p du ally evolved into an organis4 Hoalth Division. The objectives of the Health Division 88 stated by the Laboratory Director mere - (1) PEu$ectioh of the heslth of‘ the worker8 on tho project I (2) Protection of the public ficin any h8sards aria- f r a the operation of the project (3) P rtudy of the pewliar hazards with the purpose of being able t o better establish tolemnce doses, better predicrt what might happen in the future, and d d r e medm of detecting damage and treating any peramel thst might TO attain these objective8 the Health Didrion wa8 organised along the following Unerr (1) P Medical Section REPOSITORY The cU A cal medicine motion had 88 ita reeponeibillty the ordfnsry medical responsibilities of any industrial organization. expected to mako better atudiea of the personnel to determine the slightest In addltion It was indication of damage due to radiation or t o chemical toldcity. Since there mere no clinical testm for any of the possible changeat this section had t o

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might be anticipated. The Ortent of the work of this rrection is largely covered in Volnne 20 of t h i s rerler. In general, the amphaais WBII first l a i d on the hematological picture for radiation damage and on the urinary findinga for kidney damage dua t o uranium td city. these prmd very ill dna ting, 8tudies were extended Into the field of Since neither of liver damage, hemoglobin motaboUsm, pigment excretion, ensgme behavior and MW others, Pothods for detecting urklritn and plutozdua i n the urlno5c The Health-Physics Section evolved f h a an ori&nal group est up in caanection with tha Engiueering Division t o establieh eafe shielding, .It . EBB Sa217 realized t h a t shields could be used against radiations odginating in the *pilea and againat t h s major radiations coming frm bulky chemical eolutione, but that since experimental materials were t o be removed from the "pilea and test solutione were to be removed frcol the chemical extraction plant, and radioactive gam8 would evolve il.onr the chernicel crolution8, it rould be impossfbh t o completely shield eavery rorldng &rea. Eoreover, rcientiata are notably in did dualistic in their behavior and 3n carrylng out the experimentation w i t h active materiala DO - one could expest them to follow any pkdesigned pattern. Hence it wa8 necessary for the Health-Phyaicr group t o devlae in et ment a and organizational procrdurer whereby the amount of exposure received by each individual i n the Labomtory and production plant could be determined. To control the expome a t various placeor it ma8 necessary t o know the amount of radiation in variour am88 regardless of whether an individual raPr there or not, and such knowledge ra8 necessary for regions f a r beyond the operating area of 8 plant, Since radioactive paate. had to be disposed of, such as Xenon and Iodine frorll the stackat and very

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dilute aupernahnt fluids from the atorage tank69 it was necessary that meterol.ag1cal conditions be knarm for the a i r and be known f o r the water, and t h a t instrumenta be developed that could keep tract of any hazard, no matter h w small, that might exla6 for worker8 on the project or people l i v i n g within any distance 04 the project. A review of the work whlch 888 done by the Health-Physics aectfon is contained i n Val- 21 of the Project Record, The Biological Research Section wan formed with the definite a,im in vier of filling the many gap8 in our knowledge of' responses of biological materials t o radiations, The three particular objects to be attained meres first,the establishment of tolerance dosea; rrecond, the developlnent of a m e a n e of detecting incipient damegos and third, of treating pers-el who had been overexposed. The attainment of these objectives for the broad fields of external radiation8 aria% from point 6ource1, broad arema and the atomsphere in general, and for the internal radiationa aria- frggl the great Inamber of radioactive irotopee involved, resulted in a very cunplex program. The external radiations Involved included the x-rep and gamma rays concerning which scmething was known, f a s t neutron8 concerning which little988 known and 8low neutrons c once d ng which p rae tica u y nothing ua8 known inio far as the biological changes ln ft i a ted by them were concerned. Tbe radioactive elements included those t h a t were absorbed from the gastrointestinal t r a c t , through the lung and poesibly throug3 the akin, those t h a t located in varioua orgene and organ systems, and those that were excreted in various nays D a11 giving various combinations O f alpha, beta and gemma rays. Beneath all observable effects wets the mechanism by which these radiations, no matter what the origins causing the changes

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In biologlcalmaterial, If. thia could have been discovered many of the problems nodd have been more eimple, Biological Section are reported i n Volume8 22 and 23, The reeults of the sffclrta of the The Pilltary Section m a of rather 6hoz-t life and reported directlp were probably farther along this t r a i l than re wm. that they might w e radioactive materiel6 for BlilitarJI purposerr, also neceasary t h a t we conddor the poasibi3ity of our that flssion producta produced in one day's run of a 1 0 0 ~ ~kr chein reacting pfle might be sufficient t o make a large ares uninhabitable, Conaequently the MfUtary Section was dedsed to consider m e a m of protection againat the en- w e of such materials, and t o consider posaible advantages t o ua i n using chain reacting piles for production of such materials rather X t must be mnemberod that in 1942, when the chain It wab conceivable fn the S p t h Report it is stated thet calculations indicated than of Plutonim, The thought of using this material rea rapic?ly given up and the protection against enmy u88 of it was handed over t o the Army. Conesquentily there is no f'urther report on this activity. ' Rhen the Metallurgical Laboratory was first esteblishedr it ma8 financed by a contract with the ofrice of Scientific Research and Developmen. At that time the University of Chicago as the contraator was collsidrred wholly reapornibla f o r the health protection measurea which should be taken, It ma8 under this 0,S.fi.D. contract t h a t the entire structure of the Xealth Division was developed. On Yay 1, 1943 the 0, S. Army, through the agency of the U.S.EmD. became the cmntracting officer. This organlaation had a Yedical Division of ita own and it became necessary therefore to clarify

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The Health Division had comparatively Ut tle to worry about in the way of radiation hazards, and t h e i r problems were mostly theoretical until December 2, l9Q. On that memorable day the first "pile" went into operation i n the leat Stands of Stagg Field a t the University of Chicago. The day was one of great excitement, but the mer operation of the plant wad kept extremely low. For the first time the Health-Physicst were called upon to determine the aafe or unsafe conditions around an operating pile^. They did not have inatrmuents for the proper separation of faet neutron meaarurernenta fran thoae of gama ray measurements. found #at in t h e control room no appreciable readings of any type. of ionbation could be obtained. was raised, it was found that when the pile opemted a t 50 watts the intensity Horeverll it was awn I n the following days after the potser level of the "pile" rae such thata person on the curb of the street outside might receive 0.01 r/8 hours. Of course the pile was not opera.ted a t 50 watts cont bmw ly, although it was run a t higher voltages f o r brief periods and It was found that if it had been operated a t 50 wette Over a 24 hour period, the people across the e t r e e t adght receive 0,015 r. Similarly, had the pile operated a t 200 watta for a 24 hour period, they might have received 0.06 r. is thus obvioua that the operation of the npil" mas entirely s afa

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tha relations between the Amy and the Unlverrity. wayw 01% was disc used at great length in the Advisory Council of the This 188 done in tu0 Metallurgical Laboratory with General Grove8 and Colonel Nichols present, endty%agreement t o the concluaions reached was obtained, In brief, it w a u agreed that the reapansibility for the entire health pro- carried out on the fletallurgical Project a t Chicago and CUn$on Laboratoriarr m a r the responsibility of the University of Chicago thraugh its appointsd Director, This health program included the care of the health and safety of employed personnel, the rerearch dm ling dth biological eff eats of rmdia4Aozta and other Feasible effects on health that ere introduced by the new aapects of $he proposed proteas, and such considerations for the public health as are eauentfal t o the national welfare in connection uith development o r the project. The reaponsibilitg also included those of inspection and reccmunendatians a8 t o health measures with regard t o harrards charecteristic t o the procere which were carried on In other laboratories and industrial plants working under contracts supervised by the Metallurgical Laboratory. In particular this applied t.0 advice end cooperation with the duPont Corngany in preparing to aeet the hazards rrrraociatsd u i t h their operatione related t o the project. It m8 understood that with regard to related projects the respondbilities uere In clar im ng this reaponslbility the contract said in part, somewhat ae fol lot ar ",.,.The contractor shall further procure the necessary personnel, conduct such rstudies end investigations with respect t o biological and medical problems related t o o r arising out of the developent o r use of the process 8s may be necessary or advisable i n the judgment of the contractor, and shall institute and maintain in the operation

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of the plant such medical, health and preventive measure8 88 frm time to t h e it may deem advisable, mbject t o the approval of