23
of the more highly contaminated waters would result in (at least) partial
destruction of children's thyroids.
In this worst-case city, St. Louis, the computed physical destruction from blast and fire causes was extremely severe.
Alsothe H+ 1
dose rate from fallout from close-in weapons and weapons detonated
up-wind to the west was computed to be about 17,000 R/hr.
It is appar-
ent that in targeted cities such as St. Louis, the major problem con-
fronting survivors would’be to continue to avoid large dosages of
external radiation and to secure subsistence levels of water, food, and
shelter.
Through such comparisons in each critical community, it
became evident that the problem of water contamination was secondary
to other postattack exigencies.
Specifically, this study indicated:
1.
A large proportion of the postattack population will have ground
source water available, and these waters, if protected from source to
distribution, will be free of radioactivity.
2.
Communities which must rely upon surface sources that are in
the fallout region will have contaminated water available for consumption.
3.
The biological effects arising from drinking surface waters
contaminated by fallout deposited directly into the surface source
generally would be insignificant compared with other hazards.
=