Chairman ANDERSON. We will turn now to Dr. Kleinfeld and the activities of the State labor department.

Dr. KLEINFELD. Mr. Chairman, I am director of the Division of Industrial Hygiene of the New York State Department of Labor. I will skip from time to time, Mr. Chairman, and point out the areas. Chairman ANDERSON. Thank you. I am glad you gave us a complete paper so it can go in the hearings in full, because there is a lot in here that could profitably be read.

Dr. KLEINFELD. Thank you, sir.

The experience of the New York State Department of Labor will serve to illustrate the activities of a State labor department in the atomic energy field. We have had a practical experience with this problem since the early days of radiographic inspection prior to the First World War. Perhaps the most significant early experience was the tragic incident of the radium dial painters in the 1920's.

As you will recall, the radium dial painters for many years ingested damaging amounts of radium by moistening their paint brushes with their tongues. The ingested radium was deposited particularly in their bones and as a result it depressed the vital bloodforming function of this tissue. This produced fatal blood disorders and cancer. To illustrate the long-delayed effects of ionizing radiation, a fatal case of bone cancer in one of those early workers was just reported a few months ago.

Following this catastrophe in the dial-painting industry a concerted effort was made by the labor department to develop a regulatory code for the radium industry. The industrial commissioner appointed a committee of experts from government, industry, labor, medicine, and the physical sciences and for 3 years this committee studied the problem but failed to develop effective standards. The effort was ultimately abandoned because (1) the experts could not agree on exposure limits, (2) the radiation instruments were too elaborate and expensive for general use, (3) there were too few competent people to supervise the safe use of radium, and (4) there was divided opinion on the necessity for a code.

In the ensuing years, as industry increased its use of ionizing radiations, the division of industrial hygiene of the labor department gained further experience in the practical problems of control. By refining their basic techniques, industrial hygiene engineers were able to minimize the hazards. They learned to segregate and shield radiation sources, to ventilate radioactive dusts and gases, to dispose of radioactive wastes, and to develop more reliable instruments.

World War II gave the greatest impetus to both the industrial application of atomic energy and to the techniques of control. During the war the Manhattan district project was initiated. By that time enough knowledge was available to recognize the inherent hazards of radiation and the importance of safety to the success of the project. Money was therefore poured unstintingly into this high priority