GOVERNMENT SERVICES

ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION 

Strontium-90 Fall-out.—  There is nothing good about radioactive fall-out, and a constant effort is being made to reduce it to the minimum. A comprehensive document ( Health and Safety Laboratory Report No. 42, Environmental Contamination from Weapons Tests) issued recently gives a nearly complete summary of U. S. data up till about last summer. It is available through the Department of Commerce Office of Technical Services. The high levels found sometimes in wheat, rice, other grasses, and various vegetables apparently are due to the fact that these plants pick up more fall-out from the rain falling directly on the leaves than from the roots and the soil. As a consequence their level depends more on the rate of fall-out than on the total accumulated fall-out in the soil, though there definitely is some pickup from the soil. The soil pickup, however, does not lead to the large fluctuations