By Joe Mangano
March 17, 2026
The documentary Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak is now available on five streaming platforms (Amazon, Google Play, Vimeo, YouTube, and Hoopla), with seven more platforms to be added.
Silent Fallout is the first-ever feature film about the historic Cold War-era study that measured baby teeth for levels of radioactive Strontium-90 from above-ground bomb tests. It runs 80 minutes and is narrated by actor Alec Baldwin. Previously, Silent Fallout was shown in several dozen film festivals.
The baby tooth study was a collaboration of St. Louis scientists and citizens who were determined to inform the public and leaders about the buildup of dangerous fallout from continued bomb tests in the atmosphere. A staggering total of 320,000 teeth were donated to the study, mostly by concerned mothers of Baby Boomer children (who were most likely to be harmed by a dose of radiation).
Eventually, the study found that average Sr-90 in baby teeth increased over 60-fold from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s (the period of large-scale above-ground testing). Results were published in scientific journals and shared with leaders including President John F. Kennedy. In a July 1963 speech, Kennedy cited the threat of children “with cancer in their bones” – a direct reference to Sr-90, a calcium-like substance found only in nuclear bomb tests and reactors that attaches to bone and teeth.
Kennedy’s efforts encouraged the Senate to ratify the treaty banning above-ground nuclear weapons tests. The test ban, also signed by the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, was one of the greatest environmental accomplishments. It dramatically reduced levels of radioactivity in human bodies, which probably saved millions of lives.
The St. Louis study inspired similar analyses of Sr-90 from bomb test fallout in several European nations. It also inspired the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) to conduct its own study of Sr-90 in baby teeth – not from bomb fallout, but near nuclear reactors. Results showed 50% higher levels in children born closest to reactors, levels that were rising over time.
Washington University found 100,000 baby teeth from the original study but not tested for radioactivity and donated them to RPHP. Because information on each tooth and donor was also donated, RPHP has collaborated with researchers from Harvard and Purdue Universities to understand the extent which bomb fallout increased the risk of cancer later in life.