KWAJALEIN
Some 24 hours later, after lit+78, while the Lucky Dragon plunged
its way northward to Japan, the 18 people from Ailinginae, the 64
people from Rongelap, the 28 Americans, and the 157 people from
Utirik had arrived at Kwajalein.
At that time, like the Japanese
fishermen, many of them began to experience the symptoms of acute
radiation exposure:
itching and burning o£ the skin, eyes and mouth;
nausea, vomiting and diarrhea,
At this time, the people were instructed
to decontaminate themselves by wasning with soap several times a day
to clean the radioactive fallout from their bodies.
It was a partic-
ularly difficult task for tne women, who traditionally used coconut
oil on their hair, which caused the fallout particles to cling tenaciously to their long tresses.
About 2 weeks later the second stage of acute affects manifested
themselves:
the hair on the heads of many people wholly or partially
fell ont, and skin “burns''! caused primarily by beta activity began
appearing on the necks,
exposed.
shoulders,
arms and feet of the more heavily
During this two week period and for some time afterward,
doctors took daily plood and urine samples.
the
he blood samples were
watched carefully as they indicated the effect of the radiation on the
narrow and its ability to produce new cells.
If the number of certain
kinds of cells in the blood dropped far enough below a normal level,
tnen internal bleeding leading to death could occur,
watched and counted, the levels dropped:
As they were
granulocytes dropped to
Luu em” (with one count of 700), leukocyte counts dropped to 4000 or
Bh
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