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Mr. Chairman, Congressmen and Observers
I have been asked to summarize the early effects of exposure of animals
and man to external radintion with particular reference to the effects of fellout
rediation on the Marshallese, the Los Alanos accident and radium,
In addition I
have been asked to comment on the beta burns in the Marshallese and other examples
of beta burns,
Since my personal experience is limited to the Marshallese and an-
imal experimentation I shall limit nyself to these and supply reference material
for the others,
It is quite impossible to cover all of this material in a reasonable period
of time so I shall concentrate upon the effects of exposure to external radiation
on animals and man with a clinical description of the syndrome of radiation sickness as a function of dose of radiation and highlight the discussion with illus-
trative material collected in the study of the Marshellese (1).
My prepared statenent includes numerous references and further material
that time will not permit discussion of at length here.
Radiation syndromes vary as a function of the type of exposure, the dose and
the time after exposure to radiation,
In general rediation injuries can be divided
into three ge-eral classes:
a)
The syndromes of whole body radiation injury produced by penetrating
jonizing radiation which are dose and time dependent.
b)
Superficial radiation burns produced by soft radiations (beta and low
energy x or gamma radiations).
c)
Radiation injury produced by the deposition of radionuclides within
the body.
In the latter case the clinical picture varies with the site and amount of deposition,
Each of the above is associated with an early phase in which acute s;mptons
and signs mey be observed, and a late phase in which chronic changes or manifesta~
tions suck as cancer may be observed.
I wish to exrhasize also that the cegree
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