Promoting World Peace Webster activist collected baby teeth for science study

by Don Corrigan

The folk tradition of putting baby teeth under a pillow for a magic fairy to collect is thought to be 1,000 years old. More recent is the practice of putting baby teeth in shoe boxes for scientists to study.

Yvonne Logan, an activist with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, is the late Webster Groves woman responsible for the shoe box tradition. She collected the teeth for science.

“Yvonne and Joe Logan lived on Swon Avenue, and their home was often the site of meetings of people concerned about atomic weapons,” said Peter Bakker-Arkema of Webster Groves. “They both worked on the baby teeth project.”

Yvonne Logan, who died in 2017, served as director of collections for the teeth survey in the 1950s and 1960s. By the end of the project, more than 300,000 baby teeth had been collected for study from children in the Midwest.

Just as “duck and cover” drills and fallout shelters were part of the early days of an atomic age, so too, was the collection of baby teeth. Collecting began in response to atomic bomb tests by the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

Scientists wanted to know if radioactive fallout from the 1950s arms race by two great nuclear powers was affecting babies. At issue was the health of young children.

The disturbing results of what became known as the “Baby Tooth Survey” showed increasing levels of Strontium 90 in children’s teeth. A radiation by-product of atomic testing, contaminants were known to cause cancer and tumors.

The findings of the survey convinced U.S. President John F. Kennedy to promote and sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union limiting above-ground nuclear tests.

The 1963 treaty prohibited nuclear weapons tests or explosions under water, in the atmosphere or in outer space. It did allow underground nuclear tests as long as no radioactive debris fell beyond the boundaries of the nation conducting the test.

“Yvonne went to hear a nuclear physicist in Chicago talk about how one nuclear bomb would obliterate that city,” said Bakker-Arkema. “She said that was her ‘conversion moment.’ She was going to work on nuclear issues the rest of her life.”

Women For Peace

Logan hosted many meetings of activist women in her Webster Groves home throughout a life dedicated to forging peace. She became active locally, nationally and internationally with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

“Yvonne was a very outgoing and persuasive woman,” said Joyce Best of University City. “She got me involved in the baby teeth movement, and my kids were among so many who donated baby teeth.

“She and Joe traveled,” added Best, now 93. “She would just leave the house unlocked so we could meet there even when they were gone. I still belong to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. We need young people to join today.”

Founded in 1915, the organization had its roots in opposing the bloodshed of World War I. Group organizers were prominent suffragists who linked their quest for women’s rights with the struggle for peace.

The first congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom held that equal participation by women in governance and decisionmaking was essential to achieve sustainable peace. Logan joined the organization a half century after its founding.

Logan led peace marches in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. She demonstrated against the draft and sending soldiers to fight in Vietnam. She attended vigils outside the offices of General Dynamics to protest the company’s work on Trident submarines and on nuclear missiles.

As president of the American Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Logan advocated for an end to violence as a justifiable means to resolve conflict. She said it would be a great day when schools get the funding they need, and the military will need to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

Megaton Bombs & Treaties

Countries that initially signed the 1963 test ban treaty included Britain, America and the Soviet Union. The three countries conducted more than 250 tests between 1951 and 1958. Countries not signing include today’s nuclear powers, China and North Korea.

The increasing power of the 1950s’ nuclear bomb tests resulted in global anxiety and world protests for disarmament. Soviet tests of 50 megaton bombs, the equivalent of 50 million tons of TNT, were shocking.

By comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski in Japan in 1945 were much smaller at 20,000 tons of TNT. The test ban treaty in 1963 helped quell some concerns, but groups like the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom continue to sound the alarm.

“I don’t think people are as aware of the nuclear threat today,” said Best. “The threat is still with us today when you see what is going on with Russia, Ukraine, China and Korea.

“Maybe people have just gotten used to the threat,” she added. “Maybe they have too many worries closer to home now, but we should all be global citizens.”

Being a global citizen concerned about nukes was not always popular in Logan’s time. Critics called her and other activists “peaceniks.” When it came to atomic war with Russia, they were told: “Better to be dead than red.”

The color “red” referred to the communist flag of the Russiandominated Soviet Union of the Cold War period. Bakker-Arkema, who works in the banking industry in St. Louis, said Logan was no tooth fairy and could stand up to her critics.

“The legacy of the Logans on civil rights, nuclear weapons, under-privileged children and the environment was pretty impressive,” said Bakker-Arkema. “They were very involved people in Webster and St. Louis

“And Yvonne Logan did not hold back,” added Bakker-Arkema. “She was committed. She was tough and knowledgeable on the issues. She was ahead of her time.”

This article appears in an abbreviated form in Don Corrigan’s recently published book, “Amazing Webster” Groves, available at the WebsterKirkwood Times and area bookstores.