b'C H A P T E R 7S A F ETY I N S I D E A N D O U TS I D E T H E F E N C E Shandling it would have medical exami- Graph published in radiationnations before they started and proper survey report (HW-21221)[safe] guards to prevent them from shows average dailybeing poisoned. The IDO would send background radiation at Dubois.the state monthly reports of accidents, Count rises in early morningfirst-aid treatment, and hours worked. 20 and falls at night. Transect,below, shows plot locations forHostetters initial reports were good. soil and vegetation samples.From the start of the work toSeptember 1950, the IDO reported15.06 accidents per million man hoursworked. This compared favorably to anational average of 36 per millionhours and very favorably to an Idahoaverage of 70 accidents per millionhours. The Site continued to breakIdaho safety records. Robison reportedthat on July 3, 1954, Phillips employeeshad worked one million man-hourswithout any disabling injuries. This wasa first in the history of Idaho, and itwas duly celebrated with visiting digni-taries and ceremony a few weeks later. 21Johnston created an Idaho Environ-mental Advisory Committee to advisehim on matters regarding public health.The memberswho included the IdahoDirector of Public Health and otherstate health officers, a USGS geologist,a meteorologist stationed with the U.S. The group met quarterly after that, usu- in 1954 when it set standards for X-rayWeather Bureau in Boise, the Idaho ally in two-day meetings, typically machines used in shoe stores. A parentState Reclamation Engineer, and a pri- reporting afterwards to the press on or sales clerk could fit a child withvate physicianmet for the first time their commendations and critiques. 22 shoes, place the childs feet into anin March 1954. They received an intro- opening at the bottom of the machine,ductory tour of the NRTS and the activ- Before the advent of the AEC, the State and then look through a viewer to see ifities that potentially involved public of Idaho had little reason to become the shoes crowded the bones. Thehealth. Their first impressions were interested in radioactivity. Throughout machines became notorious for expos-favorable, and after the meeting, com- the 1950s, few hospitals in the state, if ing childrens feet to alarmingly-largemittee members told the press that any, used radioisotopes for the treat- doses of radiation. Through the depart-controls enforced by the NRTS appear ment or detection of disease. The Idaho ments educational efforts, Idaho shoeadequate to prevent exposure of the Department of Healths first regulations stores discontinued the use of thesurrounding area to health hazards. pertaining to radioactivity were adopted machines. 236 1'