OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 349 



The public is dealing with something unknown to them. There is 

 possibly not enough material released to the public on this so they can 

 fully understand it. 



We had an industrial plant in Houston which was supposed to be 

 operating under strict supei-rision of tlie AEC. 



That plant all of a sudden was found to be contaminated. Three 

 of the employees had contaminated tlieir own homes. There were 

 serious effects from it, such as one man losing his sight. We have 

 lawsuits going on. 



My people are disturbed about something which was supposed to 

 be under strict Government supervision where this sort of thing could 

 occur. 



Now you come along, and in defiance of all other recommendations 

 they pinpoint this thing. 



If they said tlie Gulf of IMexico could be used if certain surv^eys 

 are made and a good location is found, all right. But they give you 

 the latitude and longitude, 22 miles, less than 22 miles, 54 feet of 

 water, right where a lot of the people fish. I fished there personally 

 myself within the last 12 months. There is also a great deal of com- 

 mercial fishing. 



You got my people excited. They have done that by making a 

 specific i-ecommendation contraiy to anotlier group within your 

 organization. 



Dr. LiEBERMAX. As far as understanding by the public is con- 

 cerned, I share your concern down to tlie last detail. Tliis is certainly 

 something that I think all of us would liave to agree on. 



I recall in the early days of the AEC Chairman Lilienthal made 

 the statement we will have to learn to live with radiation. 



I am sure the implication was not that we would liave to learn to 

 live with it in any unsafe way. 



The problem of getting this sort of operation in proper perspective 

 and getting the sort, of infomnation to the public so that there is an 

 adequate understanding of this whole situation is indeed a prodigious 

 one and an exceedingly important one. 



I am not personally familiar with the previous instant in the Hous- 

 ton area you refer to. 



To put it frankly, the difficulty we run into, and this is common in 

 the industry, is that as soon as you say radioactivity the first thing 

 you conjure up in people's minds is a mushroom cloud. This is a 

 natural reaction and if you did not recognize it would be sticking 

 your head in the sand. 



"Wliat we should do to better inform the public as to what is spe- 

 fically involved in operations of this kind is something that I am not 

 completely qualified to say, but this is certainly a big part of the 

 problem. 



You use the words curies, microcuries, and most people do not 

 know what that means, and perhaps at this stage of the game they 

 don't care. 



I am not quite sure how to put a handle on that aspect of the prob- 

 lem, but I certainly agree it is an exceedingly important problem. 



All I can add at this point, Mr. Casey, is that in our plans 

 in connection with this report, we are taking these as suggestions, there 

 would be these preuse surveys, and we would want to make sure just 



