Since 1996, supporters have pushed for Senate ratification of
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), arguing that the
treaty would limit nuclear weapons proliferation and deter
nuclear war. But the treaty does more than this -- it also has a
health benefit. Put quite simply: No more tests, no more
fallout. Precisely calculating health fallout has been a
challenge since the atomic age began. Much research has focused
on the health consequences from high doses of radiation, but
little has concentrated on low doses, like fallout. And though
this challenge still exists, some understanding has been gleaned
in a rather unlikely place -- baby teeth. Radioactivity as a
neighborhood concern. Soon after large-scale US atmospheric
nuclear weapons tests in Nevada and the south Pacific began in
1951, the former US Atomic Energy Commission began testing
strontium 90 concentrations in bones obtained from autopsies in
the US and Europe; this nascent research found geographic
variations and greater concentrations in infant