STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER ON
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL RADIATION ADVISORY
COMMITTEE.
In tabling this Second Annual Rep~ ort of the
National Radiation Advisory Committee, I do not wish to say
a great deal because the report speaks most ably for itself.
The members of this Committee are, as you know, among the
most eminent scientists in this country, so that what they
have to say in this report must carry great weight. The
report is expressed in the most simple lay language and the
story tells is enormously reassuring. We have, as the
report says, been fed a diet of news and reports about
radiation and its hazards which, to say the least, has been
alarming. It is cheering then to learn from these eminent
scientists that their painstaking investigations over the
last year have shown that Australia is one of the " cleanest"
countries in the world. Indeed, to take a case, the report
establishes that the average accumulation of strontium 90 in
Australian soils in August, 1958, was about one third of that
found in the United Kingdom, one fourth of that found in most
areas of the United States, and only one seventh of that in
mid-western United States. The report goes on to say
that the maximnam permissible concentration of strontium 90 in
the human body laid down-by the Committee of the International
Commission on Radiological Protection is 110 times gre Lter
than the concentration measured in Austral-Imi infants and
660 times that in adults.'
These are only two examples which I have culled
from this report. I commend the whole text to you so that
you may make your own evaluation of the " scare" stories to
which we have been subjected.
Two other points in the report to which I feel
I should refer concern the use of x-rays in medical practice
and the whole question of control of ionizing radiation.
e 9/ 2
Ar. 2.
Concerning the use of x-rays in medicine, the
Committee has pointed out in its previous report the dangers
that can be associated with the use of x-rays. In this
report they repeat their warnings, but also refer again to
the equal dangers which could obtain if public alarm
became so great that people were toc:-becnme unwilling to
avail themselves of the necessary use of x-rays in medical
practice. I mention this point because I feel that it
should be underlined so that people will not subject
themselves unnecessarily to even greater dangers through-not
using this important aid to medical practice.
So far as the control of the uses of ionizing
radiation is concerned, the Committee recommends that the
Commonwealth Government should accept respornsibility for
the legislative control of all uses of ionizing radiation
throughout Australia. Honourable Members will understand
that this presents constitutional problems as well as other
problems, but the Committee's recommendation will be
considered by the Government and discussed with the States.
The Committee alsrn reports the resignation of
Sir Macfarlane Burnet who has been Chairman of the Committee
since its inception. Sir Macfarlane has found that increasing
personal commitments make it impossible for him to continue
on the Committee. However, Honourable Members well know the
contributions he has made to the Committee already have been
of outstanding value. I venture to say that only his great
sense of public duty has made him find the time which he has
already devoted to the work of the Committee. In a period
when, with all the great modern developments of this nuclear
age, we have been alarmed by conflicting stories of dangers
of radiation, Australia owes much to Sir Macfarlane ( and, of
course, to the other members of the Committee) for the work
put into this and the previous report.
[Date confirmed]