The predecessor agency to the Environmental Measurements Laboratory (EML) was the Atomic Energy Commission's Health and Safety Laboratory (HASL). The Health and Safety Laboratory monitored numerous nuclear weapons tests and performed laboratory analysis on soil, air, and vegetation samples containing weapons fallout. The EML assumed control of the HASL records that remained.

When HASL was transferred out of the New York Operations Office, some records were transferred to the Federal Records Center in Bayonne, New Jersey. The documents that remain in the Records Holding Area largely pertain to Operation Ivy and Operation Castle plus other assorted folders on fallout and air sampling. Although this collection originally contained some classified materials, they have since been declassified, making the entire collection unclassified. All HASL published reports are in the Office of Scientific and Technical Information at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The collection in the Records Holding Area is small, given the extensive monitoring work HASL performed. Some additional records are still held in the division offices and may also be pertinent to the Off-Site Radiation Exposure Review Project.

Many of the early records of the Health and Safety Laboratory were retired to the Federal Records Center for the New York area but were later destroyed at the records center. Some of the 1950s records pertaining to U.S. nuclear testing and fallout remain in the New York Operations Office where they are still being used. Approximately one cubic foot of the John H. Harley reading files is still in the office but is not separated by subject matter; these files may contain information on fallout. Several folders on U.S. nuclear testing in the early 1950s were sent to the CIC from the office of Harold Beck, who worked on radiation matters. These office files hold approximately 7 cubic feet of gum data records; they were shipped to the CIC and then back to the EML where they are now. Annual reports, which began in the 1970s, are also kept in the New York Operations Office. Two cubic feet of records on fallout from Operation Teapot, including Weather Bureau records, have been screened and the selected documents sent to the CIC.

DESCRIPTION	TOTAL SIZE (FEET)	POTENTIALLY RELEVANT (FEET)	HIGHEST CLASSIFICATION	VALUE
Monitoring and research records of the Environmental Measurements Laboratory	3.5	Unknown	Unclassified	Useful
Harley reading files	1	Unknown	Unclassified	Unknown
HASL papers on 1950s tests	<1	<1	Unclassified	Unknown
Gum data files	7	Unknown	Unclassified	Useful
Files on Teapot & Weather	2	2	Unclassified	Useful

CONTACTS

U.S. Department of Energy
Environmental Measurements Laboratory
376 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014-3621

Jonathan P. Ford
Administrative Officer
(212) 620-3607

Rita Rosen (technical reports)
(212) 620-3606

Wayne Lowder (gum data from Harold Beck's office)
(212) 620-3631

Mary Boyer (Harley reading files and annual reports)
(212) 620-3617