Word: strontium
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Homogenized, pasteurized, refrigerated, U.S. milk is an eminently safe beverage. But U.S. laboratories are hard at work trying to make it even safer. In a cold war world, scientists must somehow learn how to extract the radioactive strontium 90 that is showered down on pasture grass from atmospheric nuclear tests. At present, U.S. cows do not take in enough strontium to make their milk dangerous, but testing may well continue; the problem may well get worse...
...exchange resins, bits of plasticlike material with metallic atoms built into their molecules. This material can be made to release certain elements in exchange for others. So when milk that has been slightly acidified with citric acid passes through the resin, it loses most of its strontium and picks up a little extra sodium or calcium. A process using this principle was developed by scientists of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, captures 98% of the strontium, but it costs nearly 10? per quart-more than most dairy farmers get for their milk...
...leaders of the participate groups entered the State House to with Governor John A. Volpe. , the governor refused to meet delegation because of other committees. Instead, his appointment secretary James Killan, heard their pleas for reconsideration of the State fallout shelter building program and for State action to remove strontium 90 from milk...
Milk's slump is generally attributed to three factors: 1) high price, about 25? a quart in most city stores, 2) fear that strontium 90 particles from Russia's atomic tests have contaminated milk, and 3) the theory that milk, as a major source of cholesterol, the fatty substance that clogs blood vessels, may be a cause of heart disease. President Kennedy last week argued that milk is a good buy. He gently reassured the strontium 90 worriers: "The cow itself, along with other factors, makes our milk very safe." And he tut-tutted the cholesterol carpers...
After two weeks of getting to know the family, it's time to come out again into the brave new world. This is because after two weeks what is called "early fallout" has all fallen out (of the sky). A few radioactive elements such as strontium 90, cesium 137, and carbon 14, however, may remain aloft for months, and are therefore referred to as "delayed fallout." The Defense Department considers delayed fallout "less dangerous," even though "the long-term damaging effects of such exposure (to delayed fallout) are not yet known in great detail." So you needn't worry about...