r . - a 6 ° e te see + > a = _ F : ue Shed Nay to the exponent found in the huflal’ rdiihy dita Ul Norrig® ‘and’ Losey", Using this formula - negative Based on the Sr® analysis, the Hunter-Ballou fission data® and the retention data of Hamilton,® the following estimates of skeletal body burden in the Rongelap group on day 1 were made: a) rare earth group — 1.2 uc be b) 13! - 6.4 me The integrated dose to the thyroid from I'*! and the shorter lived iodine isotopes (1'%?, 1'53, and 155), assuming a 20 per cent uptake/24 hours was 180 rep. The Ailinginae values were then approximately one-half and the American were one-fourth of these values. On the basis of a radiochemical analysis on pooled urine samples collected from a cross section of the Rongelap and American populations, 16-18 March, Los Alamos reported™ the following estimate of fissions associated with material inhaled and/or ingested by the Rongelap native group: : ¥‘- 13! _ 5.5 x 10" fissions Sr®* — 1.2 x 10'3 fissions Ba'*® _ 1.0 x 10'° fissions From these data, using certain assumptions as to the uptake and retention of these radioelements by the body, the following estimate of body burden at one day was derived: Rongelap (uc) sr® American (uc) 2.2 042 Ru! Café 0.013 0.19 0.016 0.04 15! and short lived I! equivalents 5.1 mc 1.9 mc Fissionable material 0.016 pgm Ba!¢° 0.347 0.27 7 Theinitial body burden of 18! and short lived iodine isotopes, energetically equivalent to I'*! is 5.1 mc. The estimated total integrated dose to the thyroid from the todine isotopes assuming a 20 per cent uptake/24 hours and with corrections for decay of the very short lived isotopes was calculated to be 150 rep for the Rongelap natives and 50 rep for the Americans. It can be seen that with widely different approaches to the estimation of the body burden, the results obtained are very similar with the exception of the Ba" estimate. An attempt to detect bone-fixed radioactive emitters by means of sensitive film badges taped below the knee over the epiphysis of the tibia on 40 exposed Marshallese yielded nega - 5.4.3 Internal Radioactive Decontamination Ethylene diamine tetracetic acid (EDTA) has been shown to be the most effective chemical agent to date for mobilizing fission products from the skeleton and for increasing their excretion rate. 5.8.8 This chelating agent was therefore used in a decontamination therapy attempt on a group of seven Rongelap individuals having relatively large amounts of internally deposited radicelements. Oral administration of calcium EDTA, 1 gm/25 lb body weight daily me epee eran+ tive results. eo . . oe . te eee . ae . ° eee eeaete 95 ween a? Fissionable material a ernie ene eoes RR peoereemr . x rales ‘ Sr® .. 1.6 yre Bal? 2.7 ye a rey ¥ .AY eM wh yh tion the individual skeletal body burdens extrapolated back to day one are as follows: .