Effects offall-out radiation on Marshallese 281 hypothesis was that the loss of weight was due to a probable metabolic effect, if I understood it correctly. This seems to me an important point. Do you exclude that weight losses could have been due to lesions of the intestinal mucosa, possibly from the ingested material ? Conard: It does not seem likely that such an effect was responsible for the weight loss in the Marshallese people since the dose to the gastrointestinal tract was too low and, if such an effect did occur, it should have been recovered from after the first week or so when the weight reduction was continuing. The radioactive material was probably eliminated from the gut by the 3rd or 4th day.