This Month in St. Louis History

St. Louis baby tooth survey and nuclear test ban

Forty-seven years ago, the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey began. It played a unique role in the 1963 international treaty to end atmospheric nuclear bomb testing.

And a surprise finding in 2001 at Washington University of 85,000 of the baby teeth may lead to further research on the long-term effects of radiation on human health.

In another event involving teeth, the St. Louis Dental Society was founded in St. Louis in December, 1856.

In a much more recent historic development, two St. Louis brothers purchased the old Orpheum Theater in downtown St. Louis in December, 2003. They have renovated it to its original early 1900 splendor.

Young Saint Louis.com believes that kids should have an understanding of historical events that shaped the city and state in which we live. The Missouri History Museum agrees. And, each month, museum staff members research past events with anniversaries in the month of this YSL.com edition.

(For more, be sure to check www.mohistory.org.)

The Greater St. Louis Citizen's Committee for Nuclear Information organized in 1958 to provide information to the public about nuclear energy and radiation. A year later, in December, 1959, the group began the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey.

Among the founding members was Prof. Barry Commoner of Washington University, one of the most prominent anti-nuclear figures of that time.

The goal was to collect the baby teeth of thousands of children and test them for radiation levels. The idea was to find if levels of radioactive strontium-90 in the baby teeth increased in years of intense atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs.

Earlier testing by two Washington University dentistry professors showed strontium-90 levels had increased dramatically since atomic testing started during World War 11. And, the levels increased more in children born in years when testing was most active.

For the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey, a total of 300,000 primary or baby teeth were collected and tested for radiation levels. The collection involved local schools as well as Boy and Girl Scout and YMCA and YWCA groups.

Early results showed increased radiation levels in the baby teeth. Also, U.S. Public Health Service tests showed decreased birth weights and increased rates of child cancer. These helped to influence then President John F. Kennedy to push to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere.

That international ban was signed in 1963.

Then, in 2001, Washington University scientists discovered 85,000 baby teeth from that study in a storeroom. The teeth still had labels attached that told the names of the children.

That led to a new research project to check the current health status of those children that would be in their 50s.

For more, visit: http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/dental/articles/babytooth.html, www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Baby-Teeth-Fallout-Study.htm and www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/
paper244/news/2001/12/04/News/85000.Baby.Teeth.

St. Louis Dental Society

The St. Louis Dental Society was founded on Dec. 16, 1856. One of the first actions was to form a committee to investigate the formation of a dental college.

The Missouri Dental College was incorporated in 1866. It was the 6th dental college formed in the U.S. and the first west of the Mississippi River.

The college also was the first in the world to be affiliated with a medical college. The dental college shared lecture rooms, museum and hospitals with the St. Louis Medical College.

The St. Louis Dental Society was formed nearly 10 years before there was the Missouri State Dental Society.

For more about society, visit http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/dental/timeline/index.html. For dental history, visit http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldental.htm.

Roberts Orpheum Theater

The Orpheum Theater in St. Louis was built in 1917 as part of a national vaudeville performance circuit. At that time, there were 20 such theaters across the country, featuring live, touring singing, dancing and theater groups.

The days of vaudeville declined as other forms of entertainment rose in popularity. Of course, motion pictures hit the hardest at live vaudeville performances.

After vaudeville died in the 1930s, the Orpheum was a movie theater under first Warner Brothers and then Loews. In the 1960s, it returned for a time as a live performance venue, named the American Theater.

Then, in December, 2003, brothers Mike and Steve Roberts purchased the theater from Charles Cella. He was the grandson of the original builder, Louis A. Cella.

The Roberts Orpheum Theater is now open for a wide variety of concerts, theater, dance, lectures and movies. It is also used for corporate events, conferences and private parties. For more, visit www.robertsorpheum.com.