World Health Organization

The seventeenth session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board was held in Geneva from January 17 to February 2, 1956. One of the principal decisions taken at the session concerned a comprehensive program of research and study for protection against the effects of atomic radiation. The program was to include studies under WHO auspices on the effect of radiation on human heredity, on the protection of health against radiation, the standardization of radiation units and radiation doses to encourage the adoption of uniform codes of practice, and the improvement of pharmaceutical standards for modes of preparation and specific activities of radioisotopes for medical use. Training of health personnel, provision of fellowships and training facilities for a study of the problem of radioactive waste disposal, and the collection and distribution of information on the medical problems of atomic energy and on the medical uses of isotopes were also to be included in the study program. Among other decisions taken by the Board were the following: 1) it expressed pleasure that the Soviet Union had expressed its readiness to participate actively again in the work of WHO, and referred to the Assembly the question of settling arrears of contributions by the Soviet Union; 2) it recommended a budget of $11,000,000 for 1957, an increase of $800,000 over the budget for 1956; 3) it approved the creation of registry centers for the study of cancer tissues on an international basis, in the hope that comparative research might give a clue to the cause of cancer; 4) it endorsed a program of research to overcome the danger of growing resistance of disease-bearing insects to modern insecticides; 5) it called for more decisive action, in the form of large-scale campaigns, against leprosy in every country still affected by the disease; and 6) it appointed a fivemember committee on malaria eradication to advise the Director-General on various aspects of the intensified malaria campaigns and on steps to obtain increased voluntary contributions from official and private sources. Before concluding its seventeenth session, the Board agreed to hold the eighteenth session in Geneva beginning on May 28, 1956, after the close of the ninth World Health Assembly.