7 eT Tr nu Zz +25r wn O = 8 A 6— 4 os 4 wi ¥ sah a 4— d me ~ 2— (sg + W - wh NEUTROPHILS ¥ + * te © as ~ -75- MO tf Lovure BLOOD CELLS (AVERAGE COUNTS) YEARS = | 4 PLATELETS (AVERAGE “4 COUNTS) 2550 6 2@ DAYS Moe ae 56 eS Tb Ss BT 8 8 ON 24 5 DAYS a xr ! whtt-- 4 Fa, = CONTROL BASELINE <_— we 25 > -50- 4 a ba an A sos Lad ; 4 6 8 10 YEARS (2 } LEUKOCYTES AND NEUTROPHILS x 10° grt 14 — TIME AFTER FALLOUT TIME AFTER EXPOSURE Figure 41. Percent difference in blood counts of exposed and unexposed Rongelap peopie over 15-year period Figure 38. Mean neutrophil and white counts of Rongelap people from the time of exposure through 15 years post exposure. Stars represent mean values of comparison population. TT oF | q r To 9 8- 4 x — —_ >2 oe — i t T tO y ——>- EXPOSED, !5 YEARS Y t POST EXPOSURE ----8 UNEXPOSED CUMULATIVE % 0 since accident. a 5 . $28 tot — = pen e WN aL | obi tt be O8 2 40 56 7261234 5 67 8910 1112131415 DAYS YEARS TIME AFTER EXPOSURE ol Qa Le 20 4.0 0 bod 2.0 4.0 9 NEUTROPHILS « 1073 LYMPHOCYTES x 107) 10 20 30 PLATELETS x :07* Figure 42. Cumulative percent distribution curves for blood elements of Rongelap people in 1969. Figure 39. Mean lymphocyte counts of Rongelap people from time of exposure through 15 years post exposure. Stars represent mean values of comparison population. Tay Tt mod aad + 30 — T T T T T T T Tq e * 20— 7 tie a ] MALES (AGE >10) * { Qi QO —4 ; polidivyga gi 1 Og 24 4056726 123 4 DAYS mo | ! | {| L i I 1 r l 5 67 69 10 1) 12 13:14 15 YEARS TIME AFTER EXPOSURE Figure 40. Meanplatelet counts of Rongelap people from time of exposure through [5 years post exposure. Stars represent mean counts of unexposed comparison populations. level. Neutrophil levels continued to showa slight depression in the exposed group, except that in 1969 the smaller Ailingnae group showeda slight increase. Platelets continued to have the most depressed levels of the peripheral blood elements in the higher exposure group. Percentage differences Generally higher counts were noted in the population of Utirik, which had received a very low dose of radiation, butit is dificult to compare the bloed counts in the Utirik population with those in the Rongelap unexposed groups because of differences in environment and possibly in ethnic background. Morphological study of blood cells revealed the continued presence of atypical lymphocytes, particularly in the exposed population. Thesecells are similarin size to large lymphocytes orslightly larger, the cytoplasm is more basophilic, and the nucleusis more lightly stained with no indentation of the nucleus. Atypical forms were present in 27% of the exposed Rongelap group, 30% of the children of exposed parents, 12% of the unexposed population, and 10% of the Uurik population. The higher incidence in the exposed Rongelap group could be correlated with radiation exposure, but the high level in the children of the exposed > PLATELETS « 10 * 495 between the exposed groups and the comparison population are shownin Table 20 and Figure 41.