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SC4E FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON RADIATION DOSAGE TO SHEEP FROM
FALL-OUT DURING THE SPRING 1953 NUCLSAR WEAPONS TESTS

A.

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Intreductim

Caleulatics of radiatio dosage tothe thyroids of sheep ingest-

ing falleout have been made alsewhere (1).

It was thera concluded

that these doses were not Llarrs enon to account for deaths amonz
the animals.

It is centended here that althouth the activity found

in the thyroid serves as an index of total radiation exposure, tha
thyroid dose is but mea of several possible types of internal irradiation which will occur when inzestim of mixed fission products has
taken clace.

Ths most important of thes3 appears to te the dose to

the bone marrow fren long lived isctopes with 3low biological turnover.
This effsct has zensrally bien ocmsidersd to be chronic in character,
but it appears possible that "short term" effects may also occur if
th3 concentrations are gu:ficiently high and tho emitters are of

moderat ly Long half life.

Stronz evidences of bens mavrow damage hs

been fomd in sgauples taken froam the skeletcns of several of these

animals and subjected to histopatholotical examination (2).

This

accenpanies the avidence of thyroid and other damage also observed,
and is undcubtedly of sreat:r importance than the latter tothe survival
and wall veing of tha animal.

These observations and the calculatims

presented here constitute rather stron arguments Tor the conclusion

that radiation 2ffects played an important [role inyehp,decnesesdvs
mortality cbserved amonr the aninals.

CLASSFATGece

326 U...oRIss) ENERGY

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