The Survey Begins, 1958
Around the same time as the events in Tonopah, the Greater St. Louis Citizen’s Committee started up a test in conjunction with the Washington University School of Dental Medicine to analyze the levels of strontium-90 in the bones of humans. Barry Commoner, who was one of the leaders of the committee, joined forces with Pauling, who was searching for a way to prevent more cases like Martin's, and lent his prestige to the survey, which helped to legitimize it. Since they were a natural and abundant source of bone, the scientists collected thousands of baby teeth in schools, libraries, and in the mail. In return, each child who willingly donated to the cause received a pin that read “I Gave my Tooth to Science.” The first set of results, published in 1961, showed that the strontium-90 levels in the teeth rose steadily in children born throughout the 1950’s. A later study showed that children born in and after 1963 had levels of radioactivity in their bones that was fifty times as large as the children born pre-nuclear test age. With these alarming findings, Linus Pauling had the fame and the information needed in order to make his mark on the Cuban Missile Crisis.