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Show RADIOBIOLOGY RESEARCH measures radioactivity in humans The connection between cancer and radiation sparked research in the 1920's when a number of female watch factory workers were unexpectedly afflicted with bone cancer. Researchers concluded that the abundant presence of radium nuclides in their bodies, obtained from licking brushes used to paint radium on watch dials, caused the disease. Interested in the findings, the Atomic Energy Commission began seriously entertaining the notion of radiation as a possible cause of cancer. When later studies proved that radiation definitely figures as an element of our environment and that radioactivity constantly bombards us from earth, air, building materials, and our own bodies, the A.E.C. organized various long-range projects designed to determine what these radiation substances were and what effects they had on the body. In 1950 the first project of this kind anywhere in the nation was organized at the University Medical School. Dr. T. F. Dougherty, Professor of Anatomy in the College of Medicine, presently directs radiological studies in connection with cancer research. Seventy full and part-time employees work with him in the Medical School's largest research project. Ultimately the researchers hope to discover the exact amounts of radioactive elements that are safe in the body during a lifetime, not only for purposes of safety in the event of war, but also for protection against radiation releases from industrial reactors. In order to reduce the amount of background radiation so that human radioactivity can be measured, the University constructed a large steel room in which they could place either humans or animals to determine certain of the radioactive elements in the body. The room weighs in excess of 370,000 pounds, the door alone accounting for 10,000 pounds. Steel for the metal room is armor plate from the U.S.S. Indiana, a pre-atomic age battleship whose steel contains no fallout radioactivity. 138 |