Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Catherine Caufield has written an important book on an important topic: the history behind the safety standards limiting the effects of high energy radiation on human beings. . . . Provides an immense amount of information in a very readable form."-W. Alan Runciman, Prometheus"From fallout and radon to radioactive smoke detectors and dental X-rays, Caufield traces the proliferation of the uses of radiation in medicine, industry and the military, and in generating energy. An intelligent, non-alarmist history."-Publishers Weekly

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Part 1
• 1 Discovery
• 2 The First Standards
• 3 Radioactivity
• 4 The Dial Painters
• 5 Setting Limits on Radium
• Part 2
• 6 Building the Bomb
• 7 Getting to Know the Bomb
• 8 Postwar Standards
• 9 Uranium Fever
• 10 Operation Crossroads
• 11 The Proving Ground
• 12 Fallout
• Part 3
• 13 1956 Standards
• 14 Medicine After the Bombnbsp;
• 15 The Peaceful Atom
• 16 Confusion and Acrimony
• 17 A House Divided
• 18 1977 Standards
• Part 4
• 19 Natural Radiation
• 20 Multiple Exposures
• 21 Keeping Track
• 22 Unnecessary Exposures
• 23 Out of Control Epilogue Chronology
• Glossary
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

These books present opposite viewpoints on radiation. Caufield, a science journalist, sees a threat coming from the radioactive material's ``popularity as a medical and industrial tool.'' Nuclear scientist Wagner and writer Ketchum argue that such ``beneficial applications'' must be encouraged. Caufield sees the public's unease as a reponse to government secrecy, misinformation, and ``guesstimates''; Wagner and Ketchum see radiation as ``misunderstood and so unreasonably feared.'' Both these books offer a historical overview of radiation, but Wagner and Ketchum's overview seems more of a filler between their promotion of the use of radioactive tracers to study brain chemistry. (Today, biological-based tracers can replace radioactive ones.) Both the books ask important questions: Who is qualified to evaluate the social, economic, and political risks and/or benefits that arise from nuclear energy and other uses of ionizing radiation? Are there any alternatives? Are exorbitant means being used to accomplish limited ends? Both books provide good lists of related publications, but Caufield better supports her thesis and supplies more precise footnoting. Both, however, should be purchased for balanced coverage of this important topic.-- Diane M. Brown, Univ. of California Lib., Berkeley (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

From fallout and radon to radioactive smoke detectors and dental X-rays, Caufield traces the proliferation of the uses of radiation in medicine, industry and the military, and in generating energy. ``An intelligent, non-alarmist history,'' praised PW. Illustrated. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Caufield's thoroughly documented chronicle of the development of atomic radiation begins with the discovery of X rays by Wilhelm Roentgen, runs through the advances in radium, and, finally, explains the uses of plutonium in bombs and nuclear power plants. After discussions of standards and limits on human exposure to radiation, Caufiueld provides a wealth of history and biographies of noted scientists such as Edison, Einstein, and the Curies. Her material is critical of the Atomic Energy Commission and government and medical agencies around the world that have ignored the dangers of radiation while demanding progress in military and scientific endeavors. The radon issue is handled in an informative way, and the highly publicized nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are placed in their sociohistorical contexts. In conclusion, Caufield asks the reader to become informed about the radiation issue rather than apprehensive about it. Glossary, notes, bibliography; to be indexed. --George Hampton

Kirkus Book Review

From Roentgen to radon's radioactive ""daughters,"" Caufield (In the Rainforest, 1985) charts the course of man's discovery of radioactivity for better and for worse. In a way it is a Promethean tale, in which the early discoverers were hailed as seizers of a new kind of fire for the benefit of mankind, only later realizing that that fire could devastate and kill, albeit slowly and insidiously. So we are reminded that Madame Curie died of aplastic anemia, that Edison's assistant died of X-ray-induced cancer. The story of the women who painted radium onto watch dials in the 1920's gets a chapter all itself. By that time, it was known that X-ray exposure posed a threat, but radium was still considered safe. Until recently, in fact, nearly every source of ionizing radiation, natural or man-made, was treated rather cavalierly. Of course, there was a realization of danger, but the issues--how much exposure, how it added up, how extensive or long-lasting was nuclear bomb fallout, how long delayed might be the medical consequences--were never really resolved; all that can be said is that over time the limits of radiation exposure of workers have been lowered. In tracing the history of regulation, Caufield pulls no punches about the role of government and international agency spokespeople in playing fast and loose with the truth, denying claims, and painting a rosier picture than their scientific opponents. Her descriptions of natural radiation, of potential (and real) accidents on land or in space, and of unnecessary exposures in medicine only add to the gloom. Caufield is not an alarmist. She persuades more by a careful chronology and statistical detail (at times wearying) that buttress the book's credibility and its usefulness as a reference volume. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.