Medicine: Capsules, Mar. 7, 1960

¶ Experts are still far from final agreement on how much radioactive strontium 90 the human system can tolerate without damage, but to be on the safe side, Health Secretary Arthur S. Flemming last week cut the maximum permissible dose to less than half the previously accepted figure—from 80 to 33 millionths of a millionth of a curie per quart of milk, and equivalent readings in food and air. ¶ Insurance against the costs of cancer care was offered in a simplified policy by New York’s Standard Security Life Insurance Co., with maximum total benefits of $10,000 ($3,000 in any one year). Cancer is broadly defined to include leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease. Main argument for a separate policy (since other forms of health insurance may offer as good coverage) : the belief that fear of the high costs of cancer care keeps many victims from their doctors until the disease is too advanced for effective treatment. ¶ Dishpan hands sometimes take an extreme form in kitchen workers, with eczema and severe bleeding under the nails. Dr. Peter I. Long Jr. of Dayton, Ohio, reports in the A.M.A. Journal that prevention depends not only on wearing gloves but also on keeping detergents from seeping into the gloves.