Minutes - Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, 39TH Meeting Held in Washington, D. C., 9/11-12/53

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The thirty-riinth meeting of the Advisor7 Cormiittce for Bio loa and Xedicine was held atthe Atonic Energy Coniission i n ::ks.shington, D. C., on Friday and Saturday, Aeptember 11 anc? 12, 1953. Dr. Gioaxhino Fail la Staff of AEC and~ Division of Bio loa Biological Liaison Office) Ikjor Kark Terrel

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General of the Army) Cmdr. Richard 3. Lming (Office of Chief Dr, Charles H. Rurnett The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming the visitws and by zsking Dr. Rugner t o present Dr. 3urnett,and the ' new members of t'ne staff of the Division of &ology and Nediciiie Dr, Bugher introduced Dr. Burnett and st l ted that he joins the Committee as a professor of medicine front he University of Lortjh Cerolina and brings tothe Cornmittecthe point of view of the internist and will add very substantially to the re3ources which the staff as a whole i s privileged t o enjoy, Dr. Burnett was formerly associated with the medical activities at both the Harvzrd Kedicsl :School and Boston University Xedical School, New Staff Members Dr. Bugher qoke of the changes in the staff of t h e Division and expressed service with the Division, i s returning t o his professor ii l duties at Amherst College. Dr. Bugher introduced Dr. Green, who i s rep1ecir.g Dr. Plough and who will follow through with the g metics ~rograms. Green i s on leave from Ohio state University as Associate Professor,. Genetics and Biometry. Dr. Bugher also spoke with regret of Dr. Yilburls completion of his tour of duty with the Division and his return to ?Juke University. i s replacing Dr, Wilbur and is coming tothe Division from Syracuse

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University where he i s professor of Endocrinology end YAcroscopic Dr. Dudley, who has joined the Biophysics ijrmch fora special research assignment, was presented by Dr. Bugher. Dr. Dudley conies t o the Division direct from England, where he wes a Fulbright scholm. He received his Ph.D. fron Xassmhusetts Institute of Technology for his work on "The Keasureaent of Beta Rcdietion Dosage with Photographic The Chairman presented the minutes of the meting held a t Chalk River, Ontario, Canacia, on E?-y 8 and 9 , 1953, for reconsideration efter corrections hxl tine motion. The minxtes werc approved unanimously, Minutes, Cancer Research Institut e-The Cheirman ?resented. the draft, minutes for i3iology and Medicine held a t the Cancer Rae arch Institute on June 26 of the meeting of the Advisory Committee minutes were approved unanimously. It was suggested that a few minor corrections be made i n Upon a motion bjr Dr.Fail la, seconded by Dr, Stern, the on Radiological Protection, Dr.F silla reported on his trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, t o attend the International Commission on Radiological Protection, which was held on July 19-25, 1953. He stLted that the Internztional Congress of Radiology i s comprised of the International

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Cocinission on Lzdiological lJnits and the in t cr nation zl Comiission on k dio logic zl Protection. Protection has save rel sub-committees, and it i s patterned after our National Committee on Radiztion Protection hrhich a l s o has severcl subcomittees,depending on the activities that are t o be covered. primary body, i n adopting permissible limits of exposure from external The I xtc r national Conmission on Radiolosical zs Chairma of sub-comnittees for both the National >ad International Note:- A full report by Dr. Failla, which ms read at the meeting, nay be found in the files of the Division of Biology and Mcdicine, Dr. !$wren reported on classified matters pertairling t o radiation that were of primary interest in Yne United Kingdoxn. British are very much concerned over the p z rti cula r levels of rzdiation which both civil iv l and military units m3y receive and still remain effective. Ee stated that the -Note: A copy of the classified report by Dr. ??zrren may be fomd in the complete xet of notes of the meeting. Dr. Bugher briefed the Cod tte e on the 1954 budget matters.1 - He stated that our operational budget i s #26,565,030 2 s approved by the Appropriations amount i n view of the ' ht that the Administration hoped t o maintain Howcver, there was no zssurence that wi! would receive the full federal expenditures at less than the ectual appropristion levals. Dr, Bugher explained that the President and the Director of thz Bureau of the Budget have notified all agencies that they will be expected t o make greater reductions in their expenditures than they had planned forin

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their es tim tes. of the steps tkt had been taken inthe Division to curtail expcriditures, i.e., survey of activities within the Division; letters to contmctors In this comection, D;.. Rugher ed\ised the Comit tee Ee stated further that a red. pressure i s on t o achieve the greatest mount of results with the least possible expenditure. of t h e proposed 1955 budgzt. Mr. Stanwood brought out t h e highlights He spoke of 1954 spec id budget review as falling subst mt i ally short of the hdministrationts budgetary objectives, Judgment on Trogress will be predicated on progressive reductions in t h e rate of expenditures and the level of ep-doymeni. the two niec?sures of accomplislment will be receiving constant public Ee stated further that The Committee wc?s very interested in a sumiary of s cie il ti fic manycars presented by M r . Stcnwood. of scientific man-y.ears a t each of the installations and for off-site a research employee who has a3.S. degree, the equivalent or better and who is directly engaged in or directly supervising research activity. This sunmary depicted the various costs 1: scientific man-year is the full - the clssipmt of policy question on overhead i n grant-like research contracts. He stated that the Commission had not 2syet had an opportunity t o review t!ic staff paper prepared by the Divisions of Research and Eiology a d Xedlcine.

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Steps hzve bom taken t o plcce our grant-like research contracts on Operations Office ( a copy tothe Managers of other Gparations Offices) relative to the H,?rvcrd contrc-ct 609, discussed a t tine June meeting, 2nd which would, when it is renewed, put it on equal footing with other The philosophy which was taken in the letter and which is the ks is for the ection, is: "There is a Cods sion policy on overhead albeit an interim policy; that the Division of Biology and 1LIedicine i s not free to change the policy, md that we have no zl ten i at ive but t o comply with it inthe absence of a Cormission decision on policy. Coi;lmission makes a change i n policy, we shall abide by that too." If and when t h e 14r. Brown told of a visit t o Beykehy, California, to attend the Seventh Annual Confermce on t h e sdrrLnistration of Research. The pxrpose of the conference wasto exchange idees and t o discuss problem of nutucl concern t o governmcnt and industry and the uni vw s it y. Yr, Brown said thc..t it semed clear from the di.jcussions both from universities and industry and the government th z tun i vcrs i ties are obligated t o use.sone of their own funds t o help support grant-like research contrects. Dr. Doisy was of the opinion the t Dr. Piore, Chief Scientist, ONR, 3-should be corfiended for statin get the conference that his opinio no coordination of bnsic research etall wzs a lesser evil than the supercoordination envisaged i n some quarters of the Federal Government. Dr. Pi or els fear is that super-coordination of research assures adequete

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su port for tnc nediccre s cie pti st but tznds t o preclude su-?nort of the reLLly brill imt scientific gambles. t h e Research Committee during June, July a d hugust, 1953. 1.t was noted that most of the actions were on ranewals, Of the total pro jsc ts reviewed only six were new projects with en & Location of $49,262, and there wera 80 renewals with an allocation of $1,865,802 The six new projects were fully explained as tothe work tobe undertaken 8swzll 8s a major porticn of the renewds. (See list of Effects Experimnts - Upshot, Knothole biomedical emerimerhztim which took place at the test series in the spring. fie stated the t the Division had sponsored a planning and scraening cod tte e for bio md ical experimntation cmd a second cormittee fr,r struct urz l effects. These cormittees reviewcd the prDblems, reviewed the mbuissions of various agencies and peoplearrivad at certain recomzendations of a program content that could with profit be pursued in the tests. Dr. Bugher spoke of Comander Cronkite, who had under his supervision the biomedical progran; Dr. Plough, who or gai zed the g metic is ts of the country in a section of this biorxciical program; the R,dic?tion Instruments Branch under >ir. Butenhoff undertook t h e problems of radiation neasurement

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and crass evaluation; and Xr. Corsbie, Chief o f thz C i v i l Daf ense Linison Branch, who isD expert on bomb effects on struct ' zes, and whc~w2.s akki;-d by Dr. Graves to as s me the res>onaibility for %he direction of a section of the test pr3gfam t o be called the Civil Effiicts jrectiori. Fr. Corsbie reported in det ril on the general pl x for the Civ ii need for civil effects data pnrrallels and keeps pace idth tine development of Pilitary atomic wezpons and everything i n our civil effects'program stems from this need for in form tion on the effects given by our so-called fanily of atomic weapons. of the plcnning and per f omh g for these tests there i s 5. need on a He s ? id th z tin going into this program the nction's tIr. Corsbie brought out s trm gly that in d.1 continuing basis to know more and nore &out the ways i n which atonic blasts znd heat and light ad ionizing rc.,dir:tion affect people, water, food, houses, villages, utilities and all other parts of our economy. In connection with the report Ik. Corsbie presented m.ny interesting slides that gave the background of the organiztition mdthe projec%s, Commnder Cronkite spoke on radi::tlon hazards in the hE comunal He stressed the fi?e cooperation thet hsd Seen given toth es helter s. hvy group of the Los Klrn.0~ Scientific Laboratory 2nd th2 Division of Comander Cronkitels report covcred t h e question of biological do sir x try in general and the biological effects of neutron and garma radirltion inside the shelters. inthe laboratory and in the field with respect tomm ~ a l sMere shown on The various per,meters th2t have hen used

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slides with Comimder Cronkite giving ai inte-csting nx-r:tltive, Dr. Bugher noted that for the first time a pic twa of thc rd ct iv c contributions of neutron 2nd gama fluxes tothe hazard in the shelters was obtained. Previously, there was no basis for r;i,czking r? st;l.tenent f o r ileutron hazard froin a knowledge of the gq-Cu'T22 * record of the activities of the xeeting. -Blast Effects on XnimFls Comxader Cronkite continued h i s report and spoke on the studies made on the effects of neutrons, and in particular, pheres to shield out g;u;ln;a rays. the anizlals used inthe snelti3rs. Slides were S ~ GWII of the blest effect on Dr. Plough presented FL summary of the date RS thzy existed E t prcsent of view of the dC for including genetic tests in this program i s essentially to find out whether o r not neutron ir rEd iz tion ccuscs my different genetic results from gma radiation or x-reys a d therefore what the hazard of particular types of wcqons m y be as differing frorc the x-ray o r garma exposure. of the Coinmittee and at a later date e more coinplete summy will be presented tothe group. He said that the major resm froy.the point f4eny questions were propounded 5y t h e nenbers Mr. Corsbie gcve an informative review of the struct w - a l experiments and presented some visuc?l rr,atcrial of the typical fr me residcnces used i n the experiments. The homs had been s elcctcd by the her i cm Institute of

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~ rc hit ect sIS bei ~ gt plcal ,md they werc tested a t two dist m ces, 3500 typic& buses such as are uscd fcr school buses. ensued when the film sho-wing both thermal End blast effects on the four Considadole discuss im Nr. 5utenh3ff gave an interesting report on the evaluztion of dosiiietric nethods and instruments used at the tests. ments in detail. He q laine d the rep neasureits inception end the +,Lie of test operations many projects8sthe vehicles thzt ware shown, the houses, the projects thzt concerned these particular objects, the heriispherss, the shelters and many other things. was established t o study these requirements adto coordinate the v?.rious xt hods 2nd to teke the necessary steps to assure that the vnrious dosinet ers wu ld be rvailable et thc tests. Dr. hing provided the meting with graphs and reviewed the data concerning t h e nrea contmination from operation of Nevada Test 3ite. 9r. Pearson's reyort on problcns arising fro3 tha losses of livestock TZeynoted 15th approvzl tha twere of p nrt ic ulm concern t o the Comittee. two projects have been in it i at zd to continue studying the problem of livestock losses in the arsa of the test si+,e, one at the university of Nevada and the 0th-er xt the Utah State iigricultural College. Status Report on kb riel Dr. &&or revietrod t h e Gabriel question, llTh:t are the li in it et ions of tho use of atonic wezpons fro a the

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stzncipoint of contzmlnxLion or other effect on environnent t o tie question has significant irq lica ti or s with respect to pl3nning i n Dr. Bugher stressed the k port ance of the project and of the Dr. Dudley, has assused pr kary res non sibi lit y for se%ting upthe progra.? and of initiating the projects that will be concerned with samFling suitable material and then of analyzing nate rial in several different places on a uniform basis 2nd with considerable accuracy, Iiz stated that Dr. Vestern, with the assistance of Dr. Claus and Nr. Eisenbud explained in de tzi l the results of the program t o date as to the andy zing of soils, variety of foodstuffs, wheat grasses, etc, of t h e Tkste Disr;.osr?l Policy. j3ulletix ed xb li shing gc nerd crit er ipn fcr the disposal of radioactive wastes by w ~ Ccontractor had bsen distributed previously t o the Cod tte c D r . Western gave 8 general orientation He said that a drcft of the proposed GI4 for their …