# vely ayy local ate estimates fallout from the bursts occurring on tow -. suggest that the external whole body exposures in these same areas would have heen in exceaa of 75 reentgens fromgamma Ornsae raya." The principal example of skin dumage was in the case of the Marshaliese people fellowing tie heavy falluut on March 1, 1954.4 The most damaged areas were (a) in the regions of hair on the head (oiled), (b) folds of the moist bare skin’such as the neck region and inner elbow, and (c) tops of the feet where the fallout material remained in place (figs. 4a and 4b). The extent of akin damage to the most heavily exposed group may er be stummarized as follows. 45 individuals......... superficial lesions 13 individuals, deep lesions 6 individuals.........no lesions Total....+..-04 . we ie * 865 individuals (of 7 the 64 aboye).........some degree ofepilation * Hair of normal color and texture has regrown and ail lesions have healed without visible effects except for permanent loss of pigment in the healed areas in individuals and some scar tissue behind the car of one man, marking thelocation ofa previous deep lesion. Bos” aay Additional cases of skin damage from fallout were observed on some Japanese fishermen aboard the Fukuryu Maru and some American service personne! on the island of Rongeri! as a result of the March 1, 1964 fallout.” ‘Also, four men in charge of handling “hot” filters from monitoring aircraft at the Pacific Testing Site in 1948 received severe beta burns on the hands. One additional case was'an Air Force officer in charge of tranaportation of radioactive samples from the Pacific Proving Ground to the United States in:1951, A lesion developed on his forehead and right eyebrow region. The damaged area showed normal repair processes but the previously black hair of the eyebrow was replaced by white hair upon regrowth." Tnere have been no known cases of human beta burns at or around the Nevada Test Site. Evaluation Serious skin damage can result if highly radioactive fallout remains in direct contact with the skin. Simple measures such as washing can be very effective in reducing this hazerd- tne sooner the better. Skin damaye has not been observed except Ww - in those areas where the amount of fallout was high, Le. puasibly ever 75 roentyens whole body dose from Cho pamme radia: tion with most of Chis exposure oceurring in the first few days. Thus, the potential hazard of skin burng may be essentially 4 20 miles of ground zero where there was! - eliminated by meeting the criteria of an aecepl able whale body > exposure, OF course, by evacuation from oa highly contamihated area it is possible lo reduce drastically whole body exposure, yet a relatively high skin dese could accumulate if " the fallout materials were nat removedearly. . D. IODINE 13) z ; ‘ ' t .. Background Information Approximately 0.15 million curie (nv “eurie’ corresponds to 2.2 million million disintegrations of nucki per minute) of , iodine 131 are produced for each kiloten TNT equivalent of en- . ergy released by fsaion, Fur linge yield abebur sts ist of tho . jodine 131 along with other radioactive materials will be swept ; inte the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) and, sire iodine 13) : has a half-life of only eight days, a large parl of its activity: - will decay before being deposited on the earth. Cn the other: hand, iodine 15) that remains in the lower utinosphere, the: ;. troposphere, will be deposited relatively quiekly and een enter: the food chain. ‘ Milk in the principal route of entry of iodine 1 inte the: human body where it is selectively depogited in the thyroid. gland. The assumption is usually made that so percent of iouine 181 ingested by humans is deposited in the thyroid no matter what the size of this organ may be. ‘Thus, an infant's: thyroid gland of about two grains weight would receive 10 times more radiation dose than the 20 gram adult's tii ecid for the same amount of iodine 131 ingested, Por this reasan ¢ul- > eulations of radiation doses from iodine 11 for the general population are tosed on those for the infant rather than the. adult, Direct measurements of iodine $3) in milk were nat made. around the Nevada Teat Site during earlier bine» of tasting since It was the consensus of scientists within inl outelde the AEC and Government at that time that the limits factor was the potential external whole body exposure. [tis low recog: nized that there can be situations where (ie iodine 194 ex. posure can be more limiting. An example of this was the Smallboy surfave shot on July 14. 162 at the Heveda Test Site. The detonation was large enough ta produce significant quantities uf iodine T81 but due to ity low enerys yield Uhe ae. livity was not swept to bigh altitudes te be urried away, 1 oywerey es VV