Atomic energy in war and peace; medical aspects.

Abstract

In this half-century year atomic energy has been available less than 10 years, but during that period it has grown to be a major force in research, in military strategy and in world politics. Hundreds of thousands of persons are concerned with one or another aspect of it directly, and hundreds of millions of persons are concerned with it indirectly. It is well worth while for the medical profession to take account of the situation today and, in reviewing some of the lessons that have been learned, to try to foresee some of the problems of the future. The development of the Atomic Energy Project, first in the Manhattan Engineering District and later in the Atomic Energy Commission, has given outstanding evidence that earnest and cooperative effort applied even to a virtually unknown problem of preventive medicine can result in the safe development of an enormous enterprise. By 1940 standards