RADIATION Part IVu
~2-
check height and supply the statistics needed to determine deviations
in the growth rates of children.
Doctors can detect lumps on tne
thyroid gland Simply biy feeling che neck.
Routine biood tests pro-
vide a third major measure to evaluate radiation exposure.
The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were irradiated wnen a
shift in winds caused unexpectedly large amounts of fallout froma
powerful thermonuclear explosion on Bikini to be deposited on four
of the islands.
The 23 crew members of the Japanese fishing boat
Fortunate Dragon and 267 islanders were caught in the radioactive rain.
The inhabitants of Rongelap Isiand,
received the greatest fallout exposure.
arrnea,
loss of appetite and,
later,
and discoloration of skin and nails.
118 miles away from the blast,
They experienced nausea, di-
skin burns,
spotty ioss of hair
The people were evacuatec
f2cn
- Rongelap and virtually all of these immediate effects disappeared
within six months.
It is this group of 82 people that is being examined by U.S. doc-
tors every year in order to detect and treat any late effects of tneir
exposure.
Every year a pediatrician cnecks the children and other
specialists take turns supplementing the general examinations of cnil-
dren and adults.
Zhe most startling result found is that boys who were under 6
years of age at the time of irradiation have not grown as tall as ctnosc