THYROID LESIONS IN MARSHALLESE EXPOSED TO FALLOUT
(AS OF MAY, 1974)
Marshall Island Group
(radiation dose-gamma)
Rongelap (175 rads
gamma exposure)
,
Rongelap (on Ailingne
Island -69 rads gamma
exposure)
Uticik” (14 rads gamma
€xposure)
Age at
Exposure
In-utero
<10
11-16
>16
all
-
In “ET5°
16
all
Estimated
Thyroid
dose-rads
Percent
Thyroid
Lesions
175 + ?
675 - 1440
335 - 675
335
9
300 > 480
89.5
12.5
8.1
32.8
(17/19)
(1/8)
(3/37)
(21/64)
16.6 (2/12
22.2 (4/18)
40,- 80
0.0 (0/53)
all
-
3.2 (5/157)
>10
<10
Likiep unexposed (1970)
<10
>10
all
”
all
131, i32, 133, 135
22
-
-
-
Percent
.
5.3 (1/19)
5.4 (2/37)
4.7 (3/64)
1
-
0
-
4
0.6 (1/157)
2
3
4
1.6 (1/61)
0
0.0 (0/31)
0
3.6 (5/137)
0
4.7 (5/106)
-
15
l
3
17
§.8 (6/104)
4.5 (6/133)
3.6 (7/194)
-
Lesions
Surgery
337% (27643
132
-
Malignant
Thyroid
33.3 (1/3)
<10
Rongelap unexposed
In ose from
+
2
2
0
-
1.0 (1/104)
~
-
-
-
-
I plus gamma dose.
2nased on number of original people exposed.
in group.
In parentheses number of cases/total number
the thyroid is considered fully developed by age 16.
Difference of opinion as to whether or not one lesion was malignant.
was that it was benign.
Majority opinion
the more energetic shorter-lived isotopes of iodine contributed less to the total
thyroid dose in the Utirik people due to later fallout.
One might surmise also that the
biological effectiveness of the thyroid dose per rad would be less in that group.
Srifteen children 10-17 years of age at exposure in this group received estimated thyroid
doses between 22 and 40 rads.
In addition to thyroid lesions, one case of acute myelogenous leukemia was discovered
in September 1972 in a 19-year-old Rongelap boy who had received 175 rad gamma radiation
at one year of age.
He died November, 1972.