Fallout; A Study of Superbombs, Strontium 90, and Survival

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1960. Hardcover. Good/Fair. 235 pages. Tables. Charts. Appendices. Glossary. Index. DJ worn and scuffed: small tears, several pieces missing. John taught at Washington University in St. Louis; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the University of Maryland. In St. Louis. John along with E.U. Condon and Barry Commoner, played a leading role in the formation of Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI), drawing attention to the health hazards of radioactive fallout from nuclear explosives. Public concern, based largely on efforts of CNI and similar groups led to the adoption by the U.S. of the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. John was a frequent lecturer on the radiation hazards of nuclear weapons testing and testified on this subject before the U.S. Senate. He was the editor of one of the earliest books on fallout: Fallout: A Study of Superbombs, Strontium 90 and Survival. Derived from a Kirkus review: A book which puts the facts about fallout, its causes and consequences, before the American people in a factual and unambiguous way. The fireball of a nuclear bomb exceeds 100,000,000 degrees; that of one megaton bomb will grow a mile and a half wide in 10 seconds, and its gamma radiation after one hour is equivalent to the radioactivity of 300,000 tons of radium. A 20 megaton bomb would cause third degree burns to a person standing 45 miles away. Facts like these should be readily available to every intelligent person concerned about America's future and his own. Focusing on ""fallout"" as the most dangerous ultimate threat to mankind, the editor and contributors write under the premise that the scientist has two duties: to seek the truth and to communicate to all who need the knowledge gained. These are lucid essays related to all aspects of fallout; bombs and their products; the global pattern of fallout; how radioactive bomb material enters the body; the rising level of fallout; the biological effects of radiation; protection and treatment; the state of civil defense; the efforts to ban bomb tests; nuclear war; etc. The reader learns of the danger of relying on averages of ""permissible limits"" of radiation while at the same time acknowledging the development of ""hot spots"" in certain tissues. He will also learn many facts for survival, but more than anything else, he will no doubt be appalled by the utter magnitude of human destruction projected by various official estimates.