THYROID LESIONS IN MARSHALLESE EXPOSED TO FALLOUT
(AS OF MAY, 1974)
Marshall Island Group
(radiation dose-gamma)
Age at
Exposure
Rongelap (175 rads
gamma expesure)
[n-utero
<10
Rongelap (on Ailingne
Island -69 rads gamma
In ULERO
16
exposure)
Utirik? (14 rads gamma
11~16
>16
all
-
all
Estimated
Thyroid
dose-rads
i75 + ?
675 - 1440
335 - 675
335
9
488 - 480
132
Thyroid
Lesions
Percent
Thyroid
Surgery
33.3 (1/3)
89.5 (17/19)
15
12.5 (1/8)
8.1 (3/37)
32.8 (21/64)
33:3 ora
16.6 51983
-
1
3
17
Malignant
Lesions
Percent
5.3 (1/19)
5.4 (2/37)
4.7 (3/64)
22.2 (4/18)
1
2
3
.
-
<10
40, 80
0.0 (0/53)
O
-
all
-
3.2 (5/157)
4
0.6 (1/157)
Rongelap unexposed
<10
-
Likiep unexposed (1970)
<10
exposure)
>10
>10
all
”
all
lnose from L3i, 132, 133, 155
22
-
4
1.6 (1/61)
0
0.0 (0/31)
0
4.5 (6/133)
3.6 (7/194)
-
4.7 (5/106)
3.6 (5/137)
2
2
0
0
1.0 (1/104)
-
-
-
-
I plus gamma dose.
*Based on number of original people exposed.
in group.
3
5.8 (6/104)
In parentheses number of cases/total number
The thyroid is considered fully developed by age 16.
4p 4 fference of opinion as
was that it was benign.
to whether or not one lesion was malignant.
Majority opinion
The more energetic shorter-lived isotopes of iodine contributed less to the total
thyroid dose in the Utirik people due to later fallout.
One might surmise also that the
biological effectiveness of the thyroid dose per rad would be less in that group.
Sri fteen children 10-17 years of age at exposure in this group received estimated thyroid
doses between 22 and 40 rads,
"tn addition to thyroid lesions, one case of acute myelogenous leukemia was discovered
in September 1972 in a 19-year-old Rongelap boy who had received 175 rad gamma radiation
at one year of age. He died November, 1972.