Merril Eisenbud Obituary notice

[huntjb@ornl.gov (Jerry Hunt)]

Our profession has lost one of its early pioneers.

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Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:03:32
From: Mike Grey <mggrey@crws.com>
 (by way of "Dr. Peter Hill" <p.hill@fz-juelich.de>)
Subject: Merril Eisenbud Obituary notice
To: radsafe-eu@fz-juelich.de
Cc: mggrey@crws.com
Reply-to: Radsafe-eu@fz-juelich.de

This may be of interest to some people;

>>From Raleigh News & Observer Online, 8/17/97
>
>> CHAPEL HILL -- Merril Eisenbud, who was an environmentalist long before 
>> the word existed, died yesterday at his home in Chapel Hill, North 
>> Carolina. He was 82. During his extraordinary sixty-one year career in 
>> environmental health, he was involved in safety engineering, industrial 
>> hygiene, nuclear fallout, radiation protection, water purity, pollution 
>> control, and waste management. He has been a scientist, practitioner, 
>> administrator, author teacher and advocate, often simultaneously. 
>> 
>> Since 1936, when he graduated from New York University with a degree in 
>> electrical engineering, Merril Eisenbud was involved with protecting 
>> human health from the effects of chemical and radioactive pollution in 
>> the workplace and the general environment. When he began his career, the 
>> public was hardly interested in such matters. But with the passage of a 
>> World War, a postwar era in which there were numerous nuclear weapons 
>> tests, and the emergence of environmental activism, Eisenbud's career 
>> evolved from that of an industrial hygienist with Liberty Mutual Life 
>> Insurance Company to that of a scientist actively pursuing solutions to 
>> the environmental problems that are matters of great concern. 
>> 
>> For the most part, Eisenbud's work took him out of the laboratory to 
>> factories and mines, to places where nuclear weapons were tested, to the 
>> streets and rooftops of our cities, and to polluted rivers, lakes and 
>> bays. His focus was always on practical solutions that are scientifically 
>> sound and sensitive to the concerns of people affected by the problems. 
>> 
>> Merril Eisenbud was the first director of the former Atomic Energy 
>> Commission's Health and Safety laboratory from 1947 to 1957, and was 
>> manager of operations for the north-eastern United States for the AEC 
>> from 1957 to 1959. From 1959 to 1984, he was a professor at and the 
>> Associate Director of NewYork University's Institute of Environmental 
>> Medicine and Director of the Institute's Laboratory for Environmental 
>> Studies. In 1984 he became Emeritus Professor of Environmental Medicine, 
>> New York University Medical Center, and Adjunct Professor of 
>> Environmental Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 
>> In 1986, he became Scholar in Residence, Duke University Medical Center, 
>> Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 
>> 
>> From 1968 to 1970, Eisenbud took a leave of absence from NYU to become 
>> the first Administrator of New York City's Department of Environmental 
>> Protection, where he was responsible for the Department's of Sanitation, 
>> Air Resources, and Water Resources. Appointed by Mayor John Lindsay, it 
>> is believed that this was the first time that agencies responsible for 
>> the provision of basic environmental services were placed under the 
>> supervision of a single administrator. 
>> 
>> Eisenbud had numerous consultantships,including Blue Cross-Blue Shield of 
>> Greater New York, Board of Directors (1968-1975), John Hopkins University 
>> Study of Health Effects of Low Level Ionizing Radiation in Nuclear 
>> Shipyard Workers, Technical Advisory Panel (1980-1987), and General 
>> Public Utilities, Three Mile Island Safety Advisory Board (1980-1990). 
>> Service to national, international and state governments included the 
>> Executive Office of the President of the United States, United States 
>> Public Health Service, NASA, Department of Defense, Environmental 
>> Protection Agency, NIOSH, World Health Organization, United States 
>> Department of Justice, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Russia, 
>> Kazakhstan, Brazil, China, Israel, and many other countries, New York 
>> State Health Planning Advisory Council, New York State Governor's Health 
>> Advisory Council, Chair, New York State Health Department Committee on 
>> Health Implications of PCB's, Chair, Health Department Committee on 
>> Hudson River Research Priorities, Chair, New York State Health Department 
>> Committee on Mercury in Adirondack Lakes, and Chair, North Carolina 
>> LowLevel Radioactive Waste Management Authority (1987-1988). 
>> 
>> He was a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, and served on its board 
>> from 1961-1965, a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of 
>> Science, a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association where he 
>> served on the board from 1952-1955, a fellow for the Health Physics 
>> Society, and past president ad member of the Board of Directors, a past 
>> Vice President and member of the Board of Governors, Honorary Life 
>> Fellow, of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the New York 
>> Academy of Medicine. 
>> 
>> Merril Eisenbud received numerous awards of recognition for his 
>> pioneering work, including honors from the National Academy of 
>> Engineering, a Gold medal service award from the Atomic Energy 
>> Commission, the Hermann Biggs Medal from the New York State Public Health 
>> Association, the Arthur Holly Compton Award from the American Nuclear 
>> Society, the Distinguished Achievement Award fr om the Health Physics 
>> Society, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Hudson River 
>> Environmental Society. He is an Honorary Life Fellow of the New York 
>> Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow in the World Academy of Arts and 
>> Sciences. 
>> 
>> Eisenbud has published more than 200 journal articles and chapters in 
>> books, andis the author of four texts: "Biological Effects of Electric 
>> and Magnetic Fields of Extremely Low Frequency (NYU Press, 1977 with 
>> Asher Sheppard), "The Environment, Technology and Health: Human Ecology 
>> in Historic Perspective (NYU Press, 1978), "An Environmental Odyssey" 
>> (Univ. of Washington Press, 1990), and most recently, the fourth edition 
>> of "Environmental Radioactivity" (Academic Press, February, 1997). 
>> 
>> Throughout his career, and many years before risk-based assessment of 
>> environmental problems and solutions came to the fore, Merril Eisenbud 
>> urged governments and colleagues to rationally allocate resources to 
>> environmental problems, to stop wasting time and money making small risks 
>> smaller still while larger, more significant risks, go unattended. In 
>> particular, he regarded population growth as our number one environmental 
>> problem. As he wrote in "How Clean is Clean? How Safe is Safe? A Review 
>> of Environmental Priorities" (Caught Books,1993): "It is disappointing 
>> that (environmental activists) rage at government policies that may deal 
>> inadequately with some of the fine details of environmental protection, 
>> while remaining passive about the environmental ramifications of 
>> exploding populations. 
>> 
>> ... Everywhere in the world, not only the growing number of people, but 
>> their increasing material aspirations, demand larger supplies of energy, 
>> water, and other natural resources of all kinds. A society that wishes to 
>> maintain a sustainable environment must first develop population policies 
>> that recognize the limits of environmental sustainability." Thus, he 
>> wrote, "It has always been true that every technological innovation has 
>> been associated with new environmental risks, while also providing social 
>> benefits. The task that faces society is to be certain that the benefits 
>> outweigh the risks, and this has become more difficult because ... the 
>> human population is now of enormous size and has developed technological 
>> resources that may be destructive to an unprecedented degree. To continue 
>> advances in technology that improve the quality of our lives, while at 
>> the same time avoiding the detrimental by-products of progress should be 
>> the goal of modern environmentalism." 
>> 
>> In addition to his wife of fifty-eight years, Irma, who resides in Chapel 
>> Hill, North Carolina, Mr. Eisenbud is survived by three sons, Elliott, of 
>> Sacramento, California, Michael of Stamford, Connecticut, and Frederick 
>> of Fort Salonga, New York; eight grandchildren, Deborah, Daniel, Joshua, 
>> Benjamin, David, Jennifer, Chad and Lauren; and a brother, Leon Eisenbud 
>> of Naples, Florida; and sister, Elsa LaPook of Manhattan, NY. 
>> 
>> Donations to any charitable organization are welcomed. 
>
>All of us at Duke admired Merril and enjoyed his multi-dimensional
>contributions to our group. He was able to teach on hundreds of topics,
>and to appreciate new ideas in fields where nobody could have suspected he
>had interests.  He pushed us to better efforts in every area, and set an
>example of practical problem-solving that I hope we can retain even in his
>physical absence. 
>
>His memoirs, ("An Environmental Odyssey", referred to above) is an amazing
>account of a dedicated explorer's work on dozens of astonishing new health
>hazards in a well recognized technical vaccuum, in the years when
>'Industrial Hygiene' and 'Environmental Medicine' were neologisms. It's
>both inspirational and humbling. 
>
>In addition to his professional accomplishments, he was a fun companion 
>and a cheery critic. I miss him already.
>
>Gary N. Greenberg, MD MPH     Duke Occupational & Environmental Medicine 
>gary.greenberg@duke.edu         Sysop / Moderator Occ-Env-Med-L MailList
>Opinions are just mine. 
>
>
>


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Michael G. Grey M.Sc. ROH
Manager, Radiation Protection Services
Canatom Inc. (Radioactive Waste Services Division)
1182 South Service Road West
Oakville, Ontario L6L 5T7
Tel:	(905) 469-8496
Fax:	(905) 469-8498
e-mail:	mggrey@crws.com
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Jerry Hunt, CHP
Office of Radiation Protection
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