~15Snecial Examination of cyes
At all followup examinstions an opkthalmologist has examined the eyes of
all individuals.
found,
To date no lesions ascribable to lonizing radiation have been
Similar studies have been made on the eyes of non exposed Marshallese
and the incidence of eye lesions is identical in the two groups.
SKIN LESIONS AND EPILATION
As mentioned earlier there was burning of the skin.
On first examination
by the medical team on the 9th post exposure day the exposed people eppeared to
be in good health and the skin was definitely normal in external appearance.
Evidence for the development of skin lesions commenced approximately two weeks
after exposure.
During the early stages of development of the lesions, itching,
burning and slight pain were experienced with the more superficial lesions.
deeper lesions the pain was more severe,
With
The deeper foot lesions were the most
painful and caused some of the people to walk on their heels for several days during the acute stages.
Some of the more severe lesions of the neck and exillae
were painful, There were no constitutional symptoms associated with the skin lesions.
The characteristic sequence of events in the development of the lesiors was the
occurrence of symptoms, then of black pignented areas, smell in size which grew
larger in size and coalesced.
Later the skin began to shed from the inside of
the pigmented plaques to the outside and in some cases resulted in the production
of large depignented areas.
In most of the lesions the shedding was limited to the
superficial layers of the skin,
of superficial ulcers.
In some the process continued with the development
A few became infected,
The appearance of these skin burns
can best be illustrated by referring to Chapter III reference (1) where kodachrone
pictures illustrate the sequence of events.
In addition to tre skin burns, loss of
hair, spotty in nature occurred in some of the individuals.
The heir srew in agein
with normal color end texture and the regrowth was complete in all except possibly one
riddle aged man in whom it came in somewhat sparsely.
Stall pieces of skin were
POE ARCHIVES
be