1
.OID LESIONS IN MARSHALLESE EXPOs( TO FALLOUT
(AS OF MAY, 1974)
Marshall [sland Group
(radiation dose-gamma)
Age at
Exposure
Rongelap (175 rads
In-utero
Rongelap (on Ailingne
In “ETG°
gamma exposure)
Island -69 rads gamma
exposure)
Utirik? (14 rads gamma
<10
11-16
>16
all
Estimated
Thyroid l
dose-rads
175 + ?
675 - 1440
335 - 675
335
-
-
Thyroid
Lesions
Percent
Malignant
Lesicns
Percent2
15
1
3
17
5.3 (1/19)
5.4 (2/37)
4.7 (3/64)
33.3 (1/3)
89.5
12.5
8.1
32.8
(17/19)
(1/83
(3/37)
(21/64)
9
716
all
<10
360 : 480
132
-
33.3 ee
16.6 4833
22.2 (4/18)
40,- 80
0.0 (0/53)
all
-
3.2 (5/157)
Rengelap unexposed
<10
>10
all
-
-
Likiep unexposed (1970)
<10
-
all
~
exposure)
Thyroid
Surgery
>10
.
22
-
1
-
0
-
4
0.6 (1/157)
2
3
5.8 (6/104)
4
1.6 (1/61)
0
0.0 (0/31)
0
3.6 (5/137)
0
4.5 (6/133)
3.6 (7/194)
4.7 (5/106)
2
2
0
-
-
-
-
-
-
t3i, 132, 135, 6555 plus gamma dose
Based on number of original people exposed.
in group.
In parentheses number of cases/total number
3ahe thyroid is considered fully developed by age 16.
“ptf ference of opinion as to whether or not one lesion was malignant.
was that it was benign.
,
1.0 (1/104)
Majority opinion
The more energetic shorter-lived isotopes of iodine contributed less to the total
thyroid dose in the Utirik peopie due to later fallout.
One might surmise also that the
biological effectiveness of the thyroid dose per rad would be less in that group.
OF ifteen children 10-17 years of age at exposure in this group received estimated thyroid
doses between 22 and 40 rads,
In 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.