The situation is rather analogous to that of a man who owns a good house
that is heavily mortgaged. If he were offered a second house with a
similar mortgage, he would have to refuse. To be sure, he would have
twice the number of houses, but he would not need a second house since
he has all the comfort he can reasonably use in his first house—and he
would not be able to afford a second mortgage.
What humanity must do, if additional radiation damage is absolutely
necessary, is to take on as little of that added damage as possible, and
not pretend that any direct benefits will be involved. Any pretense of
that sort may well lure us into assuming still greater damage—damage we
may not be able to afford under any circumstances and for any reason.
Actually, as the situation appears right now, it is not likely that the
use of radiation in modern medicine, research, and industry will
overstep the maximum bounds set by scientists who have weighed the
problem carefully. Only nuclear warfare is likely to do so, and
apparently those governments with large capacities in this direction are
thoroughly aware of the danger and (so far, at least) have guided their
foreign policies accordingly.
SUGGESTED REFERENCES
Books
_Radiation, Genes, and Man_, Bruce Wallace and Theodosius Dobzhansky,
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York 10017, 1963, 205 pp., $5.00
(hardback); $1.28 (paperback).
_Genetics in the Atomic Age_ (second edition), Charlotte Auerbach,
Oxford University Press, Inc., Fair Lawn, New Jersey 07410, 1965, 111
pp., $2.50.
_Atomic Radiation and Life_ (revised edition), Peter Alexander, Penguin
Books, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland 21211, 1966, 288 pp., $1.65.
_The Genetic Code_, Isaac Asimov, Grossman Publishers, Inc., The Orion
Press, New York 10003, 1963, 187 pp., $3.95 (hardback); $0.60
(paperback) from the New American Library of World Literature, Inc.,
New York 10022.
_Radiation: What It Is and How It Affects You._ Ralph E. Lapp and Jack
Schubert, The Viking Press, New York 10022, 1957, 314 pp., $4.50
(hardback); $1.45 (paperback).
_Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of
Atomic Radiation_, General Assembly, 19th Session, Supplement No. 14
(A/5814), United Nations, International Documents Service, Columbia
University Press, New York 10027, 1964, 120 pp., $1.50.
_The Effects of Nuclear Weapons_, Samuel Glasstone (Ed.), U. S. Atomic
Energy Commission, 1962, 730 pp., $3.00. Available from the
Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D. C. 20402.
_Effect of Radiation on Human Heredity_, World Health Organization,
International Documents Service, Columbia University Press, New York
10027, 1957, 168 pp., $4.00.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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