Radium Dangers The Final Report of the Conference on Radium
ap- pointed to consider the merits and dangers of massive radiation almost directly negatives the conclusions pub- lished by the Conference in the spring of last year. This frank change of attitude in the light of new evidence is reassuring, for it shows that truth rather than the appearance of consistency has been sought. In its In- terim Report, the Conference supported the decision of the Radium Commission to disperse the four-gramme bomb then in use at Westminster Hospital--a decision that gave rise to a heated controversy in the medical and the lay Press. In this final report, the Conference again expresses the opinion that, on the evidence then avail- able, the Radium Commission took the 'only wise course ; but the facts got together by the sub-committee of experts who reported last month completely alter the situation. It is now proved, not only that under expert management massive radium units have great thera- peutic possibilities, but also that their use can be so controlled as to eliminate all risk to the patient ; and the Commission urges the establishment in this country of a unit containing not less than five grammes of radium. The decision is sound, but we are only beginning to understand' both the possibilities and the dangers of radium.
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