decaying per unit time.;
Major Descriptors: *CESIUM 137 -- BODY BURDEN;
Descriptors:

BIKINI;

CHRONIC INTAKE;

EXCRETION;

*HUMAN POPULATIONS -- DIET
INGESTION;

MAN;

MATHEMATICAL MODELS; URINE; WHOLE-BODY COUNTING
Broader Terms: ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES; ANIMALS; BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES;
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES;

BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS;

BIOLOGICAL WASTES

; BODY FLUIDS; CESIUM ISOTOPES; CLEARANCE; COUNTING TECHNIQUES; INTAKE;
ISLANDS; ISOTOPES; MAMMALS; MARSHALL ISLANDS; MATERIALS; MICRONESIA;
NUCLEI; OCEANIA; ODD-EVEN NUCLEI; POPULATIONS; PRIMATES; RADIOISOTOPES;
VERTEBRATES; WASTES; YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
‘
Subject Categories: 560151*
-- Radiation Effects on Animals -- Man

510302
&

‘-- Environment, Terrestrial -- Radioactive Materials Monitoring

Transport

-- Terrestrial Ecosystems

& Food Chains

INIS Subject Categories: C21*
-- Tissue Distribution,
Toxicology & Removal of Radionuclides
10/5/827
00720257

Author(s):

(Item 527 from file:
EDB-81-028510
Conard,

R.A.;

Corporate

Source:

Subfile:

TIC

Robertson,

J.S.;

Meyer,

L.M.

March 1958,

Brookhaven National Lab.,

(Technical

(-1987)

103)

Title: Medical survey of Rongelap people,
exposure to fallout

Publication Date: May 1959
p 38
Report Number(s):
BNL-534
Document Type: Report
Language: English
Journal Announcement: EDB8103
Availability: NTIS.

--

Metabolism,

Upton,

four years after

NY

(USA)

Information Center).

Country of Origin: United States
Country of Publication: United States
Abstract: Results are summarzied from a medical survey carried out in March
1958 on inhabitants of the Rongelap Islands exposed to accidental
fall-out radiation during Operation Castle n the spring of 1954. The
habitation of these people on Rongelap Island affords the opportunity
for a most valuable ecological radiation study on human beings. The
various radionuclides present on the island can be traced from the soil
through the food and into the human being, where the tissue and organ
distributions, biological half-times, and excretion rates can be
studied. No apparent acute or subacute effects were found at this time
related to the gamma dose of 175 r received,

with the possible

exception of hemopoietic findings indicating a persisting lag in

9003983

complete recovery of platelet levels of the peripheral blood. In the
males these mean levels were 11 to 16% and in the females 9% below the
corresponding mean levels of the comparison population. History and
physical examinations revealed no clinical evidence of any iliness or
findings during the past year or at the time of the survey which could
be related to whole-body exposure. Estimates of body burdens ‘of
radionuclides were determined by gamma spectroscopy and by
radiochemical analyses of urine samples. These measurements showed an
increase in the body burden of cesium-137, strontium-90, and zinc-65.
Surveys were also made on the incidence of intestinal parasites, and on
blood groups and anthropological background of the Marshallese. ;

Major Descriptors: *FALLOUT -- RADIATION HAZARDS; *HUMAN POPULATIONS -MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE; *HUMAN POPULATIONS -- RADIATION HAZARDS
Descriptors: ANTHROPOLOGY; BIOLOGICAL HALF-LIFE; BIOLOGICAL RADIATION
EFFECTS; BLOOD; BLOOD GROUPS; BLOOD PLATELETS; BODY BURDEN; CASTLE
PROJECT; CESIUM 137; ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY; EXCRETION; FOOD;
FOOD CHAINS; GAMMA RADIATION; GAMMA SPECTRA; HEMATOPOIETIC SYSTEM;
MARSHALL ISLANDS; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; PARASITES; RADIATION DOSES;
RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS; SOILS; STRONTIUM 90; TISSUE DISTRIBUTION; URINE
; WHOLE-BODY IRRADIATION; ZINC 65
Broader Terms: ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES; ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES; BETA DECAY
RADIOISOTOPES; BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; BETA-PLUS DECAY
RADIOISOTOPES; BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS; BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS; BIOLOGICAL
WASTES; BLOOD; BLOOD CELLS; BODY; BODY FLUIDS; CESIUM ISOTOPES;

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