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Rosenthal; led baby
tooth survey analysis
By Darrell E. Ward Harold L. Rosenthal, Ph.D., retired professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences, died Friday, Oct. 25, 2002, of a pulmonary embolism. He was 80. Rosenthal, of Creve Coeur, Mo., served as chair in the Department of Physiological Chemistry of the School of Dentistry. His research and teaching interests were varied and expansive, but he perhaps is best remembered for leading the analysis of baby teeth collected during the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey. The survey, conducted from 1959-1970 by the St. Louis Citizen's Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI) and funded by the National Institutes of Health, was done to determine the long-term health effects of nuclear fallout from worldwide atomic weap-ons testing in the 1950s and '60s. The CNI included many University deans and faculty. The survey ultimately collected more than 100,000 baby teeth from children throughout the region. The teeth were analyzed for strontium-90, a mineral similar to calcium that is created by nuclear bomb blasts and is readily absorbed by fast-growing teeth and bones. Rosenthal led the analysis of the teeth, with funding from the National Institute of Dental Research. These pivotal tests showed that strontium-90 levels in baby teeth rose and fell in unison over years with bomb tests and declined rapidly after testing ceased. "This was a dramatic demonstration that radioactive material from fallout produced by atomic bomb testing was getting into our children's teeth and bones," said Danny Kohl, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, who was acquaintance of Rosenthal's. The study was instrumental in persuading President Kennedy to adopt a 1963 treaty banning atmospheric bomb tests. Born in Elizabeth, N.J., Rosenthal earned a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry in 1943 at the University of New Mexico. In 1951, he earned a doctorate in biochemistry and physiology at Rutgers University. He came to Washington University in 1958 to serve as chairman of the physiological chemistry department. He retired from the University in 1987. Rosenthal is survived by his wife, Rose S. Rosenthal; two daughters, Jenifer A.R. Ohriner and Pamela S. Carr; two sisters, Dorothy Winston and Selma Goldman; a brother, Louis S. Rosenthal; and four grandsons. No memorial service was held. Rosenthal willed his body to the School of Medicine. Memorial contributions may be made to Washington University's general fund, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1082, St. Louis, MO 63130. |
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