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RARE! "Epidemiologist" Alice Stewart Hand Signed 3X2 Card Todd Mueller COA

$ 369.59

Availability: 61 in stock

Description

Up for auction a
VERY
RARE! "Epidemiologist" Alice Stewart Hand Signed 3X2 Card.
This item is authenticated by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.
ES-389A
Dr
Alice Mary Stewart
,
née
Naish
(4 October 1906 – 3 June 2002) was a British physician and
epidemiologist
specialising in
social medicine
and the effects of
radiation
on health. Her study of radiation-induced illness among workers at the
Hanford plutonium production plant
,
Washington
, is frequently cited by those who seek to demonstrate that even very low doses of radiation cause substantial hazard. She was the first person to demonstrate the link between
x-rays
of
pregnant
women and disease in their children.
She was awarded the
Right Livelihood Award
in 1986 "for bringing to light in the face of official opposition the real dangers of low-level radiation."
Stewart was born in
Sheffield
, England, the daughter of two physicians, Lucy (née Wellburn) and Albert Naish. Both were pioneers in paediatrics, and both became heroes in Sheffield for their dedication to children's welfare. Alice studied
pre-clinical medicine
at
Girton College, Cambridge
, and in 1932 completed her clinical studies at the
Royal Free Hospital
, London. She gained experienced in hospital posts in Manchester and London, before returning to the Royal Free Hospital as a
registrar
. In 1941 she took a teaching post at the
Oxford University Medical School
, and it was here she developed her interest in social medicine, advising on health problems experienced by wartime
munitions
workers. The department of social and preventive medicine at Oxford was created in 1942, with Stewart as assistant head. In 1950 she succeeded as head of the unit, but to her disappointment she was not granted the title of "professor", as awarded to her predecessor, because by then the post was considered not to be of great importance.
Nonetheless, in 1953 the
Medical Research Council
allocated funds to her pioneering study of
x-rays
as a cause of childhood cancer, which she worked on from 1953 until 1956. Her results were initially regarded as unsound. Her findings on fetal damage caused by x-rays of pregnant women were eventually accepted worldwide and the use of medical x-rays during pregnancy and early childhood was curtailed as a result (although it took around two and a half decades). Stewart retired in 1974. Her most famous investigation came after her formal retirement, while an honorary member of the department of social medicine at the
University of Birmingham
. Working with Professor
Thomas Mancuso
of the
University of Pittsburgh
she examined the sickness records of employees in the Hanford plutonium production plant, Washington state, and found a far higher incidence of radiation-induced ill health than was noted in official studies. Sir
Richard Doll
, the epidemiologist respected for his work on smoking-related illnesses, attributed her anomalous findings to a "questionable" statistical analysis supplied by her assistant,
George Kneale
(who was aware of, but may have miscalculated, the unintentional "over-reporting" of cancer diagnoses in communities near to the works). Stewart herself acknowledged that her results were outside the range considered statistically significant. Today, however, her account is valued as a response to the perceived bias in reports produced by the nuclear industry. In 1986, she was added to the
roll of honour
of the
Right Livelihood Foundation
, an annual award presented in
Stockholm
. Stewart eventually gained her coveted title of "professor" through her appointment as a professorial
fellow
of
Lady Margaret Hall
, Oxford. In 1997 Stewart was invited to become the first Chair of the
European Committee on Radiation Risk
.