The Center for Environmental Information
Perhaps the least known organization in the neighborhood, the Committee for Environmental Information is making its presence felt nationally every day.
Headquarted at 438 N. Skinker, CEI is concerned with letting the citizens of our country know about the problems and potential hazards connected with such previously unquestioned activities as the widespread use of DDT by farmers; atomic testing, both atmospheric and underground, and other, more commonly known pollutants of the world in which we all must live and breathe.
Locally, the organization is probably best known for its baby tooth survey which has been carried out each year since 1959. This year’s survey, which began March 30 and runs until June 1, again attempting to determine the amount of strontium 90, a radioactive material, the human body collects in the course of normal life.
Since the strontium 90 is deposited in bones and teeth, and because children’s teeth are easier to collect than bones, the survey has asked parents and children to obtain forms from local schools and donate baby teeth as they fall out.
The radioactive material collected by a single tooth, however, is far too small to detect Because of this, the survey must collect thousands of teeth and pool them. The dental school at Washington University does the analysis. Since its inception, the survey has collected more than 320,000 teeth.
The scientific division of the committee is composed of scientists from the St. Louis area and the Science Advisory Board is made up of well known doctors and scientists from all over the country.
The most out spoken member of the committee has been Barry Commoner, a microbiologist at Washington University. Featured on the Feb. 2, 1970, issue of Time Magazine, Commoner has been called a “Paul Revere, waking the country to environmental dangers.
CEI emphatically points out that it is not an action organization, but simply an information source for the general public. In this capacity, it publishes each month a magazine called Environment which is available to the general public at reasonable subscription rates. Interested parties may call 863-6560 for more information.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1970.
