there was no fallout outside either city in sufficient amount to have caused injurious exposure to anyone. With respect to the level of radioactivity in Sasebo in late September 1945, the specialist said in pertinent part: CASE NO. 10 Type of Injury: Leukemic Reticuloendotheliosis. ... there was noradioactivity above natural background at that time. Had there been increased radioactivity immediately following the bomb explosions, our instruments were sufficiently delicate and accurate to have detected the presence of residual radioactivity fromit. The specialist further stated that the radiation from fallout was “below any level that was biologically significant”. He concluded: BVA’s Decision: Denial Affirmed. Date of Decision: 1969. It is my opinion that there is no evidence of ionizing radiation in any Appellant's Allegation: The veteran’s death from leukemia was caused by exposure to radiation while in the service. Facts: Veteran was in active service from September 1941 to September 1946. Veteran was commanding officer of a naval vessel from January 1945 to December 1945. Vessel was engaged in escort and patrol duties during air strikes against Japan. After the war the vessel was engaged in mine sweeping operations out of Sasebo, Kyusku, Japan. There was no evidence that there was any substantial radioactive fallout in the areas where the ship was operating. Veteran was hospitalized in early February 1951 and died on March 11, 1951 of leukemic reticuloendotheliosis (monocytic granulosis of schilling type). Medical Evidence: The earliest relevant postservice medical evidence of record concerns treatment at a hospital in August 1949 for diagnosed acute aplastic anemia of unknown cause, granulocytopenia and thrombocytopenia, with clinical information that the veteran had unusual fatigue and malaise during the summer of 1949, becoming more severe prior to admission to the hospital. On examination in September 1950 for inactive reserve retention, there was recorded information that the veteran had jaundice due to a liver infection one form having been a factor in the induction of leukemia in the case of [the veteran]. Findings of the BVA and Basis for Decision: \n finding that veteran's death from leukemia was not related to radioactivity sustained during service, the Board observed: The evidence discloses that the earliest symptoms of a blood dyscrasis were when the veteran experienced undue fatigue and malaise in 1949, about 2-1/2 years after service. Findings later revealed a leukemia which resulted in his death. The claim is based on contentions that exposure to radiation between August and December 1945, as the result of the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945, insidiously caused the leukemia which produced death. In consideration of this claim, the Board obtained an opinion from an independent medical specialist, a leading authority on atomic radiation and its effects. This specialist in nuclear medicine gave a detailed refutation of specific contentions advanced on the appeal, concluding that there was no evidence of ionizing radiation in any form having been a factor in the induction of leukemia in the case of this veteran. year previously, when he had Seukopenia following the use of sulfa drugs. He was treated at a hospital during February and March 1951, was transferred to another hospital in March 1951 and died about one week later, on March 11, 1951. During terminal hospitalization, there was recorded clinical information that he had been treated for a blood dyscrasia in the late summer of 1949, and that the symptoms which had occasioned his admission in February 1951 had been increasingly severe low back pain with radiation into the left lower extremity. In view of the specific presentations advanced on the appeal, the Board obtained an advisory opinion from a specialist in nuclear medicine. In October 1969, the independent medical specialist furnished an opinion, relating in specific reference to this claim that he had studied in considerable detail in September 1945 the amounts and extent of radioactive fallout from both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombs and was in command ofthe scientific group studying the pattern and amount of fallout from the Nagasaki bombandthat 42 43