Commoner, Barry (1917–)

Barry commoner is renowned as one of the early founders of the environmental movement. He was educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities. He became a cellular biologist and was working at Washington University in the 1950s when his attention was drawn to the effects of nuclear fallout resulting from the testing of nuclear devices in the Nevada desert. His investigations led him to challenge government insistence that there were no health implications of the tests, and also challenge of data being classified. He helped establish the St. Louis Committee for Nuclear Information in the bid to pierce this secrecy. His careful observations were able to demonstrate the negative effect of fallout on children, and his work was instrumental in the creation of the Limited Test ...