by Don Corrigan
A new film, “Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak,” covers the Cold War era study of atomic bomb radiation in 320,000 baby teeth by St. Louis scientists. It’s a St. Louis International Film Festival offering at 1 p.m., Nov. 18, at the Hi Pointe Theatre, 1005 McCausland Ave.
Liz McCane of Kirkwood remembers her parents’ concern over atomic testing and the release of radiation. When she was young, Congress was in heated debate over whether U.S. atomic testing should be stopped.
“My parents sent in my baby teeth, as well as those of my 3 siblings,” recalled McCane. “My parents were both scientists, and they had some inkling of what the results would be.
“It was probably a difficult time to be a parent,” said McCane. Some friends built an underground fallout shelter in their back yard, and at school we regularly experienced drills to instruct us in case of nuclear war.”
McCane likened the school nuclear war drills to the active-shooter drills that are going on at schools today.
“I have experienced an active shooter drill with a preschool class,” said McCane. “It’s sad that teachers need to explain the reasons for such drills to children. I can imagine what my parents’ generation felt when nuclear bombs were the classroom threat for children.
The baby teeth nuclear test study was coordinated by volunteers such as the late Yvonnne Logan of Webster Groves. Initially a St. Louis project, Logan served as director of collections.
Logan’s job with the survey was to persuade parents to send in baby teeth to be analyzed at Washington University for Strontium 90, a radiation by-product of atomic testing by the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The survey took in more than 300,000 teeth. Analysis showed increasing levels of Strontium-90, a cause of bone tumors and cancer. The findings convinced President John F. Kennedy to urge Congress to pass the Partial Test Ban Treaty limiting nuclear tests.
Logan led and participated in marches in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., to ban the bomb. She demonstrated against the draft and the war in Vietnam. She attended vigils outside the offices of General Dynamics to protest its Trident submarines and their nuclear missiles.
