REVIEW: Strontium-90 Absorption by Decidous Teeth

 As you know, the United States is pretty kicking with all those civil liberties and opportunities for bettering one's lot in the world, but it is also badass in the weapons department. This is especially true for the period between 1946 and 1990.

During this time, the U.S. of A. was engaged in a staring match with an equally capable opponent, the Soviet Union. This staring match resulted in the stockpiling of many, many nuclear (not pronounced new-cue-ler) weapons, but you can't just stockpile weapons to intimidate, you have to test them. So, the Stars and Stripes tested many thermonuclear devices right here in the heartland of freedom! 

Well, it turns out that besides disintegrating everything around it, nuclear weapons also spew out radioactive material and that frightened a lot of people. So, today's paper is tested if that radioactivity was finding its way into the greatest human populace to ever exist!

I think to really appreciate the level of nuclear weapons testing going on at the time, I'm going to have to give you numbers:

Shamelessly taken from another website.

There was a lot of testing, but, from my brief research, it does not seem like anyone was asking "are there long term or immediate health effects for populations no where near the blast site?"  A valid question if you are detonating 20 bombs a year. The fastest way to see if radioactive material from nuclear fallout (not pronounced new-cue-ler) was to see if it was accumulating in humans especially children.

So, in 1958, the researcher set up a tooth collection program in the St. Louis area. No adult teeth were collected, because most adults were children before nuclear testing.

Also, calcium accumulation occurs fastest in children and strontium-90 follows normal calcium pathways, so children really had to be the source of the teeth. The paper has a whole entire section devoted to how the teeth were collected, how they were organized, who organized them, and all that. The interesting part of the tooth collection program was that there was only one salaried person, some random secretary and that for a tooth each kid would receive the following button:

 From 1959 to 1961, the researcher received 61,000 teeth, the weekly average was 750 teeth. When the strontium-90 analysis was done, there was a clear increase in the ratio of stronitum-90:calcium over time! Being breast fed versus formula fed made no difference. When stillborn infant bones and teeth were checked, they had much higher levels than those who shed their teeth later in life. I believe that later on the incidence of childhood cancer was correlated with increased ratios of strontium-90 to calcium, but I need to check on that more.

DECIDOUS TEETH STRIKE AGAIN!!!

Lead levels in deciduous teeth of urban and suburban American children.
Needleman HL, Tuncay OC, Shapiro IM.

Nature. 1972 Jan 14;235(5333):111-2.

Why is this cool?

 Every time you fill up your car with gas, you fill it with unleaded gas. When asked what unleaded means, you responded:

"It means that lead has not been added."

"Why is lead such a big deal?" 

"Well, one it is bad for the environment and it harmful to children's development."

 Today's paper is the one that showed that the presence of lead in the teeth of American children was correlated with lower scores on IQ, behavioral, and emotional tests. How did he show that? He collected a ton of teeth. The analyzed the teeth for lead content and then performed the aforementioned tests. He also carried out a follow up examination some years later, maybe I should present that one some time.

 I think this paper is an epic paper because, much like the strontium-90 in baby teeth, this it shows that human action is leading to a decline in human abilities. The action here being burning fossil fuels that have lead added to them and the human abilities being intelligence, emotion, and behavior. Now, I haven't read the paper, but when I see the word urban I immediately think poor. With decreased intelligence and emotion, the poor are guaranteed to remain poor. Then the poor will have to work forever. When industry moves underground, they will have to move as well. This will exacerbate the loss of intelligence and, ultimately, individuality! They will be the ALPHA PRIMITIVES!!

 The Alphas were cloned to be slave workers, although humans exposed to the Xerogen mists can turn humans into an Alpha. The Alphas work in the GREATEST CITY IN THE UNIVERSE: ATTILAN!!

 Attilan is the home of the INHUMANS!! The Inhumans were created by the Kree to be weapons. Each Inhuman has a unique genetic makeup and upon exposure to the Terrigen mists they realize that genetic potential! Each Inhuman is its own species!

From left to right: Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Crystal.

BABY TEETH RADIATION!!!!

Strontium-90 absorption by deciduous teeth. 

REISS LZ.

Science. 1961 Nov 24;134:1669-73.

Why is this cool?

 So, in the 1950s and 1960s, the US was testing tons of nuclear weapons and people were getting nervous about mutually assured destruction and environmental consequences of nuclear fallout. A lone researcher took it upon himself to find out if nuclear weapon testing was leading to accumulation of radioactive material in humans. So, the researcher gathered baby teeth from around St. Louis and then tested then for radioactivity. What they found rocked many a parents' world: the teeth had RADIOACTIVE STRONTIUM-90 (kind of redundant because strontium-90 probably doesn't exist in a non-radioactive form)!!!!! They present data that the later a child was born, until 1954, the more radioactive strontium was found in his teeth!
 Was this radioactivity correlated with higher incidences of cancer later in life? I don't know, but I would bet so. It is very interesting, because both my parents were born in the early fifties and they probably still have strontium-90 in their teeth!! This paper was published in 1961 and that precedes an IMPORTANT MILESTONE IN AMERICAN HISTORY: STAN LEE'S RE-INVENTION OF MARVEL!!!

Made of Uranium-238

 Is it a coincidence that Stan Lee (born in 1922) had developed the greatest comics ever written shortly after widespread nuclear weapon testing? I think not. In fact, I believe Stan Lee to be made of radiation!!From 1961 to 1963, Stan created society defining characters such as:

THE AVENGERS!!

THE HULK!!

THE FANTASTIC FOUR!!

SPIDER-MAN!!

THE X-MEN!!!