-3
7?)
(If the gamma and beta radiation measurements taken
during Nevada tests had been correctly interpreted at the time
that they were made (i.e. taking into account the resultant
exposure to children's thyroids where the food chain conditions
led to iodine 132 intake), simple preventive neasures could
have been taken to avoid exposure.
This would require only
that inhabitants of the region be warned to avoid the drinking
of fresh milk produced locally.
Pluid milk supplies from other
regions, or powdered miikx, could have been readily substituted,
thereby preventing the ingestion of excessive iodine 131 from
local milk.
We know of ay instance in which such a warning
was issued. until the summer of 1962, when high iodine 131
levels observed in commercial milk supplied in Utah led
state health officials to divert current milk from the market.
8)
Correct interpretation of gamma and beta radiation
monitoring measurements should have been possible by 1954 on
the basis °f then-available scientific theory.
Thus, it was
known at that tims that (a) iodine 131 comprises a specific
fraction of the total fission product, which can be estimated
from overall measi.rements «ff ganma and beta radiation and
the age of fallout depcait; (b) icdine 131, along with other
fallout preducts, 13 deprsited on pasture grass and enters
the food chain; °1) 4cedine 13. in food becomes concentrated
in the thyroid, thereby incressing its biologically effective
dosage to the body.
ical
after 1957 tnere was not only a theores-
basis for this inter, retation, but also a detailed
practical illustration of its importance.
In that year a