The optimum population and an affluent society

The population optimum is formulated such that income-related shifts are permitted in rates of substitution between arguments in the welfare function. Under plausible assumptions, when income, the number of people, open space, leisure, and pollution are explicitly included in the welfare function, and even though the income elasticity of added children is positive, families will tend to have fewer children as incomes rise, while enjoying more open space and reduced levels of pollution. A shift toward leisure tends to have the partial effect of increasing the optimum. The model predicts that consumption will become increasingly extra-market as incomes rise.     

Development of some natural matrix standards — Progress report

Substantial progress has been made in the production of environmental level, natural matrix, radioactivity standards of soil of low organic and low carbonate content, and of human lung and human liver. This is in response to the deliberations of the 1977 ICRM meeting at which the need for such standards was voiced and the criteria suggested. The soil samples have been reduced to optimum particle size and are ready for blending and standardization. A ten year supply of this standard should be ready in a year or less. Reducing the dried lung and liver to less than 74 μm has proven formidable because of the natural fat and oil content. Using cyrogenic milling techniques more than three quarters of the total mass of each has been reduced to the desired particle size; the balance will either be reduced or removed and we can then proceed to the final standardization.