Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 7. 1966.

A-Bomb Checks

A-Bomb Checks

Research is being undertaken by the Botany Department of VUW into the effects of the French nuclear tests on edible seaweeds in the South Pacific area.

Senior Lecturer in the department, Mr. H. W. Johnston, is arranging for samples of red and green seaweed to be sent here both before and after the explosion to enable scientists to analyse it and discover any variations in its strontium 90 content.

Mr. Johnston said this week that considerable amounts of green seaweed are eaten by Pacific Islanders.

Research so far indicates that only the brown variety of seaweed concentrates strontium 90 from seawater to a marked extent, he said.

Mr. Johnston said the possibility of phyto plankton concentrating strontium 90 from surrounding water seems remote but that research into this would continue.

Phyto plankton are fed on by fish and the eflects on human beings if they concentrated strontium 90 could be very serious.

Present research indicates that there is little to fear, Mr. Johnston added.