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Idre Gordon Dean, Chajnnan The purpose of this letter is t o advise you of the salient points of our discussions atthe meeting of the Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine on March 9 and 10, 1951 a t the Washington Office of the Atomic Energy Commission, T h i s was our twenty-sixth meeting. We were pleased towelcome D r , John c, Bugher of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, who has been appointed to the position of Deputy Director of t h e Division of Biology and %&cine, and t h e new Executive Officer of t h e Division, bir. Howard Brown, The Committee reviewed the research programs on Friday morning, and discussed each research proposal that had been approved o r decline& by the Division since our last meeting. of the investigators and in the merit of the research pm j ect s ' t o be W e concurred i n the selection Considerable discussion ensued on the relative merits of the llGrant-inAidff as opposed to the Wontract" form of supporting research a t other than AEC laboratories. Aidft is, in fact, a contract; an the other hand, the term ncontract" is not exactly expressive of our intention in supporting basic research. We understand that Dr, Warren's group will.study this matter further and provide us with some addition'kl. facts at the the of our M q meeting. On the one hand, it appears thata IfGrant-inWe wish to thank you for inviting Governor Caldvpell and members of h i s staff to talk to us on civil defense, Since the inception of this Committee in 19b7, we have been deeply interested in c i v i l defense problems, particularly those phases peculiar t o ato*c energy. Governor C&€well outlined the responsibilities of t h e four major divisions of t h e Federal Civil Defense Administration, consisting of Operations - which has cognizance over the shelter program, ah? warden program, and supplies; Technical Services - engineering forces, rescue forces, fire, police, and a l l i e d units; Education and Training - operation of the staff college and technical training for citizen volunteers. The fourth division is t h a t of hfedical and Welfare Services. Caldwell emphasized that he and his staff envisage their responsibility to be that of minimizing the effect of a disaster on the civilian populace, whether this disaster resultsfrom an atomic bomb o r sabotage or other forms of enemy attack.
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Dr. i-izrren described the AZCIs role civil defense, which, as we understand, is t o make availzble t o the PCilA, within the limits of security, the benefit of that experience pertinent t o the mission of laboratories, t h e study of the Japanese casualties, and research on the effects of atomic weapons, and t o guide them i n the resolution of specific technical problems as they arise o r which the AEC may foresee as arising in the future, Dr. Kiefer oriented us onthe medical program, and spoke of the able assistance he had received from Dr. Warren and his staff in the preparation of the boo u ets Wnited St& es Civil Defense11and Wealth Services and Special Weapons.Defense.n All in all, it wasa most informative session, and, we believe, mutually profitable t o the AEC and the FCDA. The Committee will continue to be @ ertto possible ways i n which it may assist the AEC in its civil defense responsibilities and in its relationships with the FCDA. Saturdaymorning D r . Warren discussed the recent Nevada tests, and described those phases pertinent t o our interests. particularly intrigued by ''Operation Hot Rodf1- the experiment t o investigate the shelter potentialities of automobiles as an aid t o that part of the discussion, line will. be continued, and that the preliminary indications that the automobile is a relatively safe refuge i n an atomic attack will be The Committee was Dr. Claus, through means of slides,very abl j presented It is our hope t h a t stuc?ies along this The problems of continuing the work of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission i n Japan were reconsidered in light of developments which have occurred since our last meeting at Hanford, accomplishing the scientific objectives of this Commission are now somewhat brighter than a few months ago. Dr. Warren told us of his discussions with Dr. Joseph 3. Koepfli, Scientific Adviser t o t h e Secretary of Sta+&, Dr. Koepfli has offered his assistance i n coordinating State Department policy with the needs of the program in Japan, peace treaty soon t o be negotiated with the Japanese Government, as it might affect the ABCC. He i s also observing the progress ofthe i n v i m of this discussion and the importance of the resear ch program ofthe ABCC, the Committee, ..... in its continued appraisal of the situation" and "in l i g h t of the willingness of the NAS and the expressed interest and cooperation of the Department of State voted t o continue operation of the ABCC work i n Japan, and recommends t o the Commission that the contract with the Academy be renewed and that the
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general scope of the wark--so far a.s conditions pedt - - b e continued as currently defined, nanely: general medical survey, leukemia survey, cataract studies, genetic studies, t o time by joint consultation by representatives of the A3C and NAS. In formulating t h i s the Committee believes that Lhe work must be carried out to its l cgi cal conclusion and must necessarily be pursued over a considerable period of time. It i s recognized that short time operation would Se waste fd scientifically and financially and that the study must be continued for2 period of yea - sotl These may b s modified fromtime It was farther recomnended that an advisory committee be set up t o guide the field operations of the ABCC consisting of representatives of the Academy of Sciences and the AEC with D r . Bronk acting a s Ex Officio Chair ma and an Executive Secretary isto be appointed to handlo 211 a dx in is tr at ive matters. Dr. ZeUe apprised us of the genetic problems t o be considered in developing enginecring specifications for future plants and laboratories. Xhi3.e considerable financial savings could be realized by designing AEC installations for, say, two-thirds to ler vlc e exposure instead of essentially zero exposure, as is the present policy, data recently obtained indicates that it would be unwise to alter our present policy at this time. Dr. Ralph Neader of the National Institute of Health joined the meeting on Saturday afternoon to tellus of the progress that has been made i n the joint investigation of the United States Public Health Service and mendation that certain funds from the current appropriation for the National Cancer Institute be earmarked to initiate projects in this field had been approved by Dr. Scheele, the Surgeon General. We were pleased t o learn that the recomThe next meeting of the AC3M will be held a t the University of Rochester on May 18 and 19, 19% Biology and Medicine