Radiation Levels: Air, Water and Food

📒 Measurements of radiation from the earth, and in the air, water, and food are regularly made in Great Britain and other countries, and there is systematic control of nuclear power stations and the industrial and medical uses of radioactive substances. It is reassuring to know that measurements of radiation in Great Britain have shown that the effects of the tests of nuclear bombs in other parts of the world have been smaller than the differences in the natural background radiation in different parts of this country. At the same time, it should be noted that though the radiation doses so far resulting from the contamination of diet throughout the United Kingdom have been well below the limits set by the Medical Research Council, there have been considerable variations as a result of the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere from trials of nuclear weapons. For example, the mean concentration of strontium 90 in milk for the year ended 31 March 1963, was more than twice as great as in the calendar years 1960 and 1961; and there were similar changes in the content of strontium 90 in the mixed diet of the population, which included drinking water and tea. It is important, therefore, that the systematic measurements and investigations that are made by the Medical Research Council, the Agricultural Research Council, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, and other organizations should be continued, so that the situation is under constant review.