4081 37
ON
ESTIMATED THYROID DOSES & PREDICTED THYROID CANCERS
-.,,
RCTIVES
US DOE ARGi
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IN UTAH INFANTS EXPOSED TO FALUOUT I'846 ys ATOMIC ENERGY
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COMMISSION
Charles W. Mays
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Din.
Physics Group Leader, Radiobiolp
Anatomy Dept., U. of Heapcollection DEL
Salt Lake City, Utah
ABSTRACT:
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The inadvertent exposure of about reOrRGeUtahsnkants y hyn ee
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to average thyroid doses estimated at 1.3-10 fa
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aetPinatas(1946
unigue opportunity to establish the effects of low doses of I}
irradiation in children.
INTRODUCT ION
Iodine-131 is produced in nuclear explosions.
is contaminated with fresh fallout,
If cows eat forage which
I??? appears in their milk.
If a child
drinks this radioactive milk, I’°! concentrates in his thyroid gland and
irradiates it.
Infants are considered to be the critical members of the
population.
Dr. Robert C. Pendleton*™ was the first to discover that fallout from the
Nevada nuclear tests of 1962 would cause significant contamination from
radioactive I???
in Utah) |
Following his vigorous urging that steps be
taken to reduce the exposure, the Utah State Department of Health recommended:
(1) transfer of cows from highly contaminated pasture to stored feed, and
(2) diversion of highly contaminated milk from the fresh market ©)
protective action set a precedent:
This
it marked the first official attempt in
this country to prevent the intake of fallout-contaminated food.
In analyzing the 1962 incident I became fascinated with the implications
of exposures from the previous years of testing.
Unknown to me at the time,
this problem was also being investigated through different approaches by
Dr. Harold A. Knapp then with the AEC, and by members of the St. Louis
Committee on Nuclear Information.
Same conclusion:
Working independently, we all came to the
significant expoSures were indicated.
The problem was complicated enormously by the fact that I??? was not
properly recognized as a fallout hazard during the early years of testing
(1951, 1952, 1953 & 1955), and, unfortunately,
I??? was not measured in milk
wv
Associate Professor of Genetic and Molecular Biology and Head, Department of
Radiological Health, University of Utah.
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